In 2017, photographer Dan Nelken and his wife, Adele Brown, traveled to Gulu, Uganda, where Brown spent three weeks teaching critical thinking skills to blind high school students at an NGO. Nelken tagged along to document the organization's work, but quickly became obsessed with the town's main market - you know, the kind of place where you can buy used clothes, fruit, and firewood, and also inadvertently star in an art project.

To get portraits of the vendors, Nelken enlisted the help of a student named Emmanuel (Emma), who would approach potential subjects, seek their consent, and negotiate a modest 'model fee.' Because nothing says 'respectful artistic practice' like paying someone for their time, as opposed to the traditional approach of just pointing a camera and hoping for the best.

One of the subjects was Janet, a quarry worker who had been hauling rocks on her head for a decade. She had eight children, and her husband - a boda-boda taxi driver who had lost a leg - was unable to work. 'I am now the husband in this home,' she told Nelken, which is a deeply poignant line that probably deserves more than a photograph.

Despite the careful process, Nelken returned to New York and was disappointed with the results. Like so many 'well-intentioned projects,' he thought that was the end of it. Because nothing says 'artistic integrity' like abandoning your work because it didn't turn out Instagram-worthy, even when the subjects have literally carried rocks on their heads for a decade.