Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision

Indecent Exposures

Almost anywhere you choose to shoot you will inevitably run across the poor, the addicted, the lame, the disfigured. Anyone who’s ever wanted to shoot for National Geographic might be immediately tempted to take a photograph. There are good reasons for taking photographs of the excluded and the forgotten. And there are good reasons not to, not the least of which is the further trampling of their already ragged dignity.

“There are good reasons for taking photographs of the excluded and the forgotten. And there are good reasons not to.”

I have strong feelings about this subject. I spend large chunks of my year in the developing world photographing for groups like World Vision, who work among the poor and excluded, particularly ...