some days are diamondsby
ubiqueComment by HarveyG: "Oh sorry Mr Homeless person, hold that pose, I need to dash home and grab my socially equal standing Kodak Brownie...and to remain socially accepted, PC, to capture you without offending or anyone else." - Bah Humbug!
The legendary Nikon F introduced in 1959 became the camera to "have" by PJ's covering the Vietnam War. I doubt it cost less then than the countless maimed, napalmed and tortured individuals it was used to photograph. It opened the worlds eyes to Human Rights violations on BOTH sides. It did however replace the MORE EXPENSIVE range finders then currently used by PJ's! Pooh to the expense vs subject argument.
30 years later CNN's massive following as it covered the Gulf War was part due to their visuals that left us all mouth agape. Should they have used Cine 8 to make the footage?
Man will continue to improve technologically, and the scale between the haves and have nots will ever widen, despite socialist and PC rhetoric. Should this stop us as photographers from recording that which presents itself and showing it to the world? How much news and how many images came out of the Soviet Bloc during the cold war? Surely due the inferior gear (vs that of the West) produced there would have meant a bombardment of work? We know why the west saw very few visuals from behind the Iron Curtain (which thankfully rusted through.)
Naturally I have the benefit of post challenge Photographer Comments, and I certainly understand the responses to this image, especially those pre-rollover, questioning the validity, morals.
Ray(Ethier)'s response was delicately observed, no doubt from years of experience as an officer of the law, yet Paul DID depict the man is being "treated" as garbage.
EDIT: Typo's
Let us hope SOPA does not prevent this type of visual social commentary in the years ahead.
Message edited by author 2012-01-29 03:45:05. 
Photographer found comment helpful.