A photograph should respect the person whose difficult moment makes it powerful.

An image gets its force from somebody’s worst hour, and that person carries the cost of it long after the picture is admired. The photographer moves on; the subject stays attached to the frame, often without ever having been asked. Power in a photograph is borrowed from a real life, and borrowing has terms even when nothing legal requires them.

Ask before you take it, and ask again before you share it, especially with people you know. Consider whether the person would choose this frame to represent that day. If you cannot ask, weigh what the image is for against what it costs the person in it.