The fact is, most photographs, without intending to, promote reality - they say, among other things, isn't the world a complicated place? There's us and there's them and there's room for all of us! They say: Isn't it sad what some people are driven to, but isn't it amazing how even the most downtrodden can find something to cheer about? Most photographs dignify the worst situations by revealing courage in adversity, a silent and thoughtful moment in the heart of chaos. But is this information appropriate? Can the poor and the homeless use our admiration for the lines on their face? Our respect for the silent moments in which, like ourselves, they gaze thoughtfully out of windows? In the long run, most photographs sentimentalize their subject by assuring us that poverty can be redeemed by art - which it can't - and by affirming the interesting existence of people who are not like us. But the poor are not like us. They are us. And only the very very best photographs teach us that lesson.