Ethics of photographing the homeless - Page 2

I've been asked a time or two, but declined each request.

why should you ask them? homeless people aren't people in any real sense - more like flash bags full of useful organs who drain my tax dollars. if they had any value they'd have jobs and they'd be making real salaries. liberals like mafoofan are what's wrong with america today - why would you buy someone a sandwhich? you could've put that money to better use lighting it on fire. charity is the road to communism.

not for Teger!

Were the nudes tasteful? 

i'm not particularly mocking you.

and yes.. you should ask them. if they give you permission, how is it exploitation? it's not like you're using these pictures a la scott douchebag schuman.

is this what they call humble brag?

a few people out there still take the camera-steals-the-soul bit seriously.

American-Indians and other tribes used to..

In my early twenties I went on a summer day excursion of photographing homeless people with a few friends. This was in the early 1980's. I approached each one, asked permission and if it was granted I snapped their photo. I then offered each one a crisp $10 bill if they would tell me their story in 5 minutes or less. After only 4 homeless people I could go on no further as I was too overwhelmed by their tragic stories. Not one of them wanted to be on the street. God bless and help them all. It is a day I will never forget.

A year later the same group did an outing in a cemetary. Black & White film only. We were nervous exploring the theme of death and did silly poses beside, on or under some monuments and photographed. I will tell you that photographing the homeless was a very sad day, but photographing in the cemetary had the most deeply disturbing after-effect on me. I really felt that I had meddled with something; some force that should never be meddled with. After looking through my developed photos I was a nervous wreck and the next weekend i returned to that cemetary, went to each stone and monument I had photographed, knelt and apologised to their spirits and begged forgiveness. I am serious, I actually wept while I apologised. Then I destroyed the photos and negatives.

Sorry this post was so heavy but that is what happened and how I felt about it.

The Dyaks were the only ones who gave me any pause.

You're lucky you didn't end up with a massive headache..

I had a pretty normal conversation with a guy for about 20 minutes before I knew he was homeless. He asked me for some change after a long while. I only had $20's. He made out good that day.

I think I'd charge more than a dollar a minute to talk to you.

Grr!