Blending philosophy and hard-won field experience in his talk during the 10th edition of the Xposure International Photography Festival 2026, Polish photojournalist Tomasz Tomaszewski revealed how he has spent three decades photographing communities that fundamentally do not want to be photographed.

The National Geographic veteran, who has published 18 photo essays for the magazine over 30 years, shared stories from Roma settlements in Romania, Ghanaian fishing villages, Polish highland communities, Indonesia’s sugar-producing towns, and El Salvador’s war zones — places where cameras are unwelcome and trust must be earned one interaction at a time.

“There are some photographers who are considered to be people-oriented, and the former Director of Photography at National Geographic became convinced that I was one of those guys who could quite easily win people over,” Tomaszewski told the audience. “So he kept sending me to places where people were really opposed to the idea of being in front of a lens or a camera.”

The smile that stopped a mistreatment

One of Tomaszewski’s most striking revelations came when he discussed navigating danger in El Salvador in the aftermath of the war. When a man pointed a gun at him, the photojournalist’s response was unconventional.

“I looked at him and said, ‘You’re always so charming. Do you have a birthday today?’ He was so shocked that he decided not to kill me,” Tomaszewski recounted. “That’s a simple, everyday situation in El Salvador.”

The incident captured Tomaszewski’s philosophy on one of photography’s most underused tools. “I consider the smile to be one of the most powerful tools we have, and in my opinion, we are not using it very often in a proper way,” he said. “Several times, I was able to stop people who were trying to mistreat me just by smiling at them.”

The veteran also recounted several stories illustrating why he continues to do difficult work despite everything already being “photographed and shown and explained almost.” In El Salvador, he encountered a man who had lost both legs and featured him in a National Geographic story. A wealthy woman in Washington was deeply moved and wanted to send the fisherman an electric wheelchair, which Tomaszewski explained would be useless on the village’s terrain. The fisherman instead asked for a boat engine. The woman sent it — and within a year, the village’s economy was transformed.

In one Romanian location, Tomaszewski accidentally left behind a lens and a camera. “I returned two hours later, and the kids were running toward me, showing that I had left something behind. In that same place, I spent three days dancing and jumping over the fire. Later, my partner — a journalist — went there with the same guide, and he was beaten by the same kids.”

The difference, Tomaszewski believes, comes down to “the information you are sending people using your face — mostly your eyes, but also your smile.”

The principles of building trust

Tomaszewski, who studied physics before turning to photography, holds a PhD in Media Art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and has been working since 1976, emphasised that there is no written manual for building trust in difficult places.

His key principles for building trust with subjects are honesty and transparency, respect, patience, and time, and giving — not just taking. “The best pictures are taken not using eyes, but using hearts,” he noted.

“Wherever I go, I always tell people exactly what is happening — that I am a journalist, that I’m a photographer. I never hide. Showing respect opens the door to their hearts immediately. Time means commitment and determination. It means being patient and having endurance. I’ve found that people feel better with someone who is conscious, who knows what they’re doing, and who can lead the parade — not arrogantly, not aggressively, but in a gentle yet strong way.”

“Finally, I’m not only taking from people; I’m also giving something. I bring them prints. You can carry a small printer, take a picture with your phone, and give it away immediately. This is the passport to people’s hearts.”