A lot of great, compassionate and/or interesting work has been done of the poor, and I'm sure will be done in the future.
However, the poor, the dispossessed, citizens of developing countries...they've become part of a general dialogue of what's "picturesque," or at least worthy to photograph simply by nature of what it is. Like picket fences, clapboard churches, and old factories. So no, I tend not to photograph this stuff simply for the sake of adding yet another stereotyped image to the cosmic file folder of "pictures of poor people," and maybe showing them off for my own ego, helping me craft a "man of the world who's seen things, sometimes terrible things" self-image.
I have two photos from Africa in the gallery (and more not posted) that I find problematic for just this reason. Took them and still not sure what to make of them, even though they're not particularly interesting images. While living in Africa, I found it very hard to just take photos of people for no specific purpose, both those in really vulnerable situations like refugees and those just going about their daily lives.
I have friends who can joyously engage everyone everywhere, snapping digital shots of people in the third world without the least bit of self-consciousness or enjoining a bad reaction from anyone. I can't do that; part of it may be some general thing about my demeanor, part of it may be the fact that I'm often using more elaborate-looking equipment, and most of it's probably my own conflicted-ness about doing it and a good deal of over-thinking. Although as a teenage photo student, I thought Sontag was full of it, I have come to see photography as an act of possession in many ways, which can easily take on aggressive or exploitative overtones. But at my moments of the least self-loathing, I can also manage see these shots as simple notes from my diary of where I've lived and what I've seen.
If I was a journalist, documentarian, or artist with a story, agenda, or project going on, I might have felt differently. I did consider several projects, such as a portrait series of people involved in transport (bearers, bicyclists, moto-taxi and mini-bus drivers) or even some more arty stuff about Western perceptions of the "other," but work and civil wars and elections kind of got in the way.