Thomas Hawk's $2 Portraits

While searching for cute pictures of piggies on Flickr (I know, I know...) I came across this photographer Thomas Hawk. His photographs are very good, but I was especially inspired by a series he calls, "$2 Portraits." When people approach him asking for money, he offers them $2 in exchange for their photograph.

He says, "In part I'm undertaking this project because I realize that I've been avoiding people asking me for money. My biggest motivation behind this project however is simply that I think human interaction is a good thing. I'm not doing this to exploit homeless people or show how hard and bad life can be. I'm doing this because I want to celebrate other human beings as human beings and I think that this commercial transaction gives us an opportunity to engage and interact on a more human level... and I also think that I can take a pretty decent portrait."

I think it's a great idea, plus I love reading all their interesting life stories. Here are a few of my favorites:

You can view the rest here.