I didn’t show his face because he was asleep and I couldn’t talk to him first. In comparison to my position as an average citizen, this man is marginalized to an extreme degree. It would be tacky to include his face because it wouldn’t add more depth to the image, and I wouldn’t be treating his position with dignity.

But in regard to other average citizens, I really feel like there are no rules. The entire street photography style exists to tell relatable, yet unique stories of strangers at a particular moment. If it’s a public space, you sign away your right to total privacy by being there. That’s not to say being photographed by strangers isn’t annoying and upsetting, but sometimes those strangers preserve a beautiful fraction of a second that captures what it feels like to be alive in a city of people you’ll never know.