I just returned from OAXACA, Mexico where local street people are pretty wary of tourists w/cameras. When I saw someone I wanted to shoot I would engage the person somehow, ask directions, buy an inexpensive trinket or just exchange smiles. Then a request to shoot was always granted. The first shot would be posed, but the second, after focus and exposure had been established, was often natural and un- noticed. Handicapped beggars never were shot. I gave them an offering and skipped the photo altogether. In the 16th C church in Mitla I thought I was alone to photograph the altar. Then I noticed an old Zapotec Indian man on his knees carrying a candle and a boquet of lillies reciting prayers as he made his way painfully up the aisle to the altar. I slipped out of the church a silently as I could. He would have made a great subject but not at the cost of his dignity. It has taken me a long time to learn to be more sensitive to people I want to photograph. I still have a ways to go but I am uncomfortable about some of the bad examples of intrusion I committed in the past. As a teacher, my students are sort of a captive subject group. I tell them I am a lens, camera and film testing neurotic and please wave me off if they object. Really flattering pics become gift prints to the subjects. I have tried to adapt the famous warning to "one man's privacy begins where my lens ends". Bill Lawlor
