There is NOTHING interesting about these photos.* They require nothing more than the ability to afford a plane ticket to Nicaragua, the know-how to toggle to the black-and-white function on your camera, and the preposterous self-importance to snap an exploitative photo of a stranger’s kid, tell yourself it’s art, and submit it to a photo contest. Wow, you vacationed in perpetual safety in an impoverished country and encountered a real-life poor person? You got close enough to him to take a photo? Hondurans smile too??

I can’t aim a camera for shit, but I’d bet dollars to donuts that I could spend ten minutes in my neighbor’s well-manicured backyard taking sepia-toned photos of her 5-to-8-year-old kids playing in the dirt, and if I submitted them to the Voice’s 2013 photo contest claiming that I was in Tanzania, I’d win first fucking place.

* And I’m not ragging on all photos of third-worldians. Go to Midnight Mug and there’s a good chance you can look at a beautiful series of student photographs that showcase a poorer community, but with a little bit of dignity. Those photos tend to depict something *interesting* about themselves or their lives. (Besides the fact that they, you know, know how to smile.)