Considering the rapid democratization of photography, I would disagree that “No one ever thinks they will get killed for using Twitter. Or beaten for taking a photograph.” I’m constantly trying to specify photography and overwhelmed by thoughts of the capital P photographers all over the world who are suspect to authorities. There are those censored as embeds, moneyed with guards and translators, or in terrible danger as a native and a reporter in the war zone. And since fast exposure of an event trumps professional skills, why should we not think citizen journalists are sharing the risks of all the people who call themselves photographers?

For the sake of comparison, what about a photograph hanging in a museum–is that less risky? I think about how the Culture Wars to Hide/Seek have shown queer artists getting “beaten.” Can we splice how we perceive a harmless and then a significant photo? I’m thinking now of the mother in Yerba Buena Gardens, who I saw yesterday taking a picture on her iphone of her kid playing with the water in the fountain, both looking like they were about to fall in.