NYT: Slum visits: Tourism or voyeurism?

From Rio to Johannesburg to Mumbai, slum tourism - or "poorism" - is catching on.

But according to Eric Weiner in the New York Times, not everyone is happy about the trend.

Critics of the tours call it pure, exploitative voyeurism that makes money off of the backs of the disadvantaged.

But proponents say that the experience takes the tourists out of their sheltered worlds, showing them the true face of poverty.

And in some cases, some of the money earned from the tours is channelled back into the subject community.

I sometimes have these conflicting feelings when photographing low-income neighborhoods. I get a personalized keepsake of a place of endless fascination, but what does the resident get? How do they feel when staring at the lens of my camera?