What Would Lewis W. Hine Do?

Street children sleep in downtown Maputo. Boys are commonly abandoned by families in Mozambique since, culturally, girls hold more value as workers, in a dowery and as future financial support to her family when married.

Am I Stealing? Exploiting? One of the biggest issues for me almost daily here in Maputo in photographing is the overwhelming poverty and the almost constant bombardment of people asking for money. Certainly for everybody taking this course, we are by Mozambican standards extremely wealthy. By my standards as an American, I most certainly am not; however, most Americans - even the poorest - are doing quite well in comparison. This has brought me to question myself and re-examine long-standing personal rules for not paying subjects. Am I somehow stealing from the poor that I photograph?

Here, more than anytime in my life, it is nearly impossible to photograph in public without somebody asking for or demanding money. For instance, when photographing an old abandoned sort of cool-looking building while on a walk in Swaziland last week, a man in the distance started chasing me down and telling me that I should pay him. He was very persistent and was using logic that since he used to have a little stand nearby I should pay him. I did not.

In general when I photograph, I will ask permission which usually includes and explanation of who I am and my intentions. I am honest about it and often (very often here) told no. For instance, I've been trying to photograph women in a market that sell live animals and butcher them on the spot. It's been in good spirit and the women are in general very nice and often quite funny, but absolutely will not budge unless I pay them. I could very well pay them, but then should I pay everyone? Will I then be perceived as setting things up or influencing people's actions by giving them money? Is it ethical to pay? Is it unethical not to?

Today, I photographed the children above and thought, considering my interest in orphans here, that it would be stupid not to. But I was with my wife and two babies in a somewhat shady area. My wife was not too keen on me going out (and rarely is) where a lot of potentially bad things could happen. Plus, she knows that I usually take much longer than I say I will. We had passed them earlier on foot, and throughout our outing I was having an internal debate on whether to photograph them. My hesitations were: 1.) I had my children and my family with me 2.) These children were sleeping and although that was the scene I wanted undisturbed, I instinctively knew someone in the vicinity would take umbrage and confront me.

In the end, after I packed the family in the car and parked them in a more secure area, I explained to my wife that I needed to photograph them and talked to her about my hesitations. Before I left I told her that someone is bound to ask me for payment and that she shouldn't be surprised if I'm being chased down when I return. When I photographed, a nearby street vendor came and started trying to sell me things and then asked what I was doing and I explained before I started photographing. I was quiet and worked slowly around the scene, and slowly more people started gathering around me, mostly trying to sell me things. I was on my way out when one vendor, much taller than me, started yelling at me and telling me to pay the children and then started asking me to pay him too. It was a scene and I couldn't say a word since he was so aggressive. I just made my way back to the car seeing my wife looking uncomfortable as I approached.

Ultimately, I would like to do something with my work that will help, but I still am having the internal debate after looking over my pictures and reliving the events. Similar to my situation a couple of days ago, it is discouraging. When I did a long-term project on the homeless nearly ten years ago, I asked many similar ethical questions. I reread about 1994 Pulitzer winner Kevin Carter recently and know there are ethical parallels here.