I'm still trying to photograph in the dump here. Today, I paid a couple of guys to guide me, but it was tough, and I didn't actually get to shoot much at all. Two official workers from the dump harassed me ultimately because I'm sure they wanted a pay off. I was conflicted as I told Homer during my initial Easter project tutorial about paying folks mostly because it's a new practice to me. There is no ethical violation in the least, but because I've had so many people wanting me to pay them to take their picture or even when I've been shooting in an area where they think I somehow should pay them, I sort of was mentally clumping them together. Carlos, a friend of mine who is a Mozambican photojournalist, kind of switched on that light for me a couple of months ago when over drinks when I was talking to him about some of my struggles here.
He told me that even he as a local has to often simply find somebody to pay to "guide" who knows a neighborhood, area or situation so he can work without being hassled too much. I've done it a few times now on my Marginal project and today at the dump. It's been incredibly helpful but definitely not ideal because I still have to dodge people who want to beat me up or yell at me and explain myself out of bad situations like today.
I've been away in South Africa where one of my little boys had an operation, so I'm a bit off pace and have to get back into some projects. One thing that I discovered in South Africa that I want to research and hopefully do something on is Afrikaner cowboys: fascinating!
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1 comment:
Hi Mike,
I find your dilemma very pertinent and I have certainly been guilty of making the mistake of paying even small change to some kids in a Fiji market, more and more kids came to have their picture taken and as it was my last day I crossed their palms with silver. The pictures were pretty crap and the gesture was small but afterwards I felt bad because I had reinforced the image of white man tourist gives out money. You can't help every one and should feel free to help people if you want but the worry is it sets a president which makes free picture taking harder perhaps in the future.
While in Ghana I took a different approach and while I paid some people for occasional portraits my "guides" were only paid at the end of the trip. This meant they were there when I asked them to be and they felt they were just doing a bit of freelance work. My Ghanaan friend who was making a documentary with the same people had adopted the same working practice so I followed suit. However in Kenya several years ago I didn't have to pay anyone so perhaps there are no hard or fast rules?
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