[leica] photographing the homeless

[kcassidy at asc.upenn.edu (Kyle Cassidy)]

george sed:

>I think the question to ask is: in the end, are you doing it for your own
>benefits, their benefits, or other people's benefits?

i dont think that's quite it -- i don't think there's necessarily a 
qualification at all that you have to be doing it to _help_ someone else, 
but rather that you'll be honest to someone else -- let's say you're 
photographing someone who you find morally reprehensible -- i'll use the KKK 
as an example -- let's say you're tasked to photograph them -- i dont think 
that you have an obligation to take a photograph that _benefits_ the KKK -- 
and i think this is true for homeless people and any other photograph you 
take -- i think you have an obligation to _photograph them well_.

that means, if your editor sends you to photograph the KKK, or the American 
Nazi Party, or the Taliban, or whomever,  that you'll spend the time with 
them to know them, know their names, know their ideas, and that you'll take 
a photograph that isn't cheap, that is a photograph that is the best 
photograph you can take and that represents your subjects as _honestly_ as 
time and circumstances permit. and that you will use this same photographic 
integrity when you photograph the homeless and when you photograph the queen 
of england.

kc