{"id":113538,"date":"2025-11-03T19:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113538\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T19:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:07:07","slug":"photographer-refuses-to-take-down-homeless-womans-portrait-despite-family-requests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113538\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer Refuses to Take Down Homeless Woman’s Portrait Despite Family Requests"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>Stock photo. <\/p>\n

A photographer is refusing to take down images he took of a homeless woman before she died \u2014 despite requests from her family. <\/p>\n

Donnie Johnston documents unhoused people in Windsor, Canada, and in Detroit, United States. His social media pages<\/a> are filled with unsettling images of people struggling with poverty and addiction. <\/p>\n

One of the people he photographed circa 2017 is Alicia Newman, who died at age 37 in 2018. About a year later, Newman\u2019s family, including her twin brother Devin, saw the photos and requested that Johnston remove them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard because my sister didn\u2019t look like that at all,\u201d Devin tells CBC<\/a>. \u201cIt felt really violating, seeing her in a vulnerable state,\u201d adds Alicia\u2019s half-sister Nancy Turner. <\/p>\n

Johnston has reportedly ignored the family\u2019s requests, blocked them on social media, and continued to publish the photographs. He apparently captured three portraits of Alicia, he posted<\/a> one just a week ago. <\/p>\n

PetaPixel has reached out to Johnston for this story, but when CBC contacted him for comment, he declined, instead posting an Instagram Story which read: \u201cI don\u2019t claim to be anything but a photographer. I will never take down any photo for any reason ever. End of story.\u201d <\/p>\n

Most recently, Johnston has shared clips and quotes from controversial street photographer Bruce Gilden<\/a>, whose in your face style has won as many critics as compliments. It appears the quotes relate to the photos of Alicia Newman. <\/p>\n

Laws Around Street Photography <\/p>\n

Both in Canada and the United States, it is legal to take a photo of anyone on a public street. Only in places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy can street and press photographers face restrictions. <\/p>\n

A law professor from the University of Windsor tells CBC that she believes the law isn\u2019t keeping pace with the digital world we live in \u2014 especially as it relates to homeless people. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a huge vulnerability created through this lack of legal protection when the laws can\u2019t be nuanced enough to understand that people have different ways of experiencing being out in public,\u201d says Kristen Thomasen.<\/p>\n

Denmark is currently strengthening laws<\/a> to protect a person\u2019s likeness, which may affect photography. But any regulation that stops photographers from carrying out their work freely would be devastating to the art form, and may have unintended consequences, such as affecting press freedom. <\/p>\n

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos<\/a>.<\/p>\n