Paul, I don't claim your expertise in the field, .
I almost never make reference to my professional life when entering into internet discussions, and I wish I hadn't this time but it's too late now.
My point is really not to do with any "expertise" I might have, but that whatever expertise one has -
or whether one has none at all - one cannot reliably infer a photographer's state of mind from their photographs.
If we had been told that Tichy was a famous academic artist whose photographs were posed with paid models, the response might be quite different.
But because the articles about Tichy use particular kinds of (highly judgmental) language, and because in them we are told (and we have no means of verifying the truth of these statements) that he "sneaked around" or was seen as a suspicious character, we immediately place his photographs in a context.
If you went to an exhibition and saw these photographs, but had no information at all - not even the artist's name - just the pictures ... what then ?
All you can do is notice your own emotional (or intellectual or wheteveral) response.
I do find it curious that painters can create the most horrific and disturbing images (Goya, perhaps, or more recently Bacon) yet they are not dismissed as having "crossed the line"...