Exploitation

“the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work.”

Seems to be a common thought about photographing people from poor neighborhoods and/or countries. I think it’s total BS. Look at this lady below.

Does she look exploited? I saw her working behind these huge slabs of meat in an El Salvador mercado. There were a few other meat vendors working beside her. This scene was fascinating to me. I’d never seen anything like it. I sat back and photographed from a distance. Her and the other vendors were all watching me. I highly doubt gringos visit this mercado. They were very interested in what I was doing. I walked around for a bit, bought a hat and circled back to her. This time as I circled back, for some reason she really stuck out. I had to ask her for a photo. She was so thrilled and proud of her work. She was happy I noticed her stall, happy that I was happy to photograph her. She stood proud and looked at her vendor friends with a look of excitement. It was a great experience for all of us. We were all smiling and having a good time. But edgy online nerds who have never left their city will tell you this is exploitation.