Read on Twitter
Last night, I tweeted about photography & consent. Should people have a right to say No to the camera?
I'm far from the only person asking this question. Here's a short thread with links to recent writing that my students & I have found to be useful & challenging. https://twitter.com/johnedwinmason/status/1343717619157905410
I'm far from the only person asking this question. Here's a short thread with links to recent writing that my students & I have found to be useful & challenging. https://twitter.com/johnedwinmason/status/1343717619157905410
This powerful piece by @CAushana & @tlpix brings together a black photographer's personal experiences, history, & theory, acknowledging the good & the bad in photography of social movements. https://niemanreports.org/articles/protest-photography-and-black-lives-matter/
In this article, @bunnisays challenges white photographers to, among other things, open their eyes wider & take a more capacious (& less cliched) view of protests. Key word: Respect. https://niemanreports.org/articles/in-photographing-social-justice-protests-respect-means-looking-again/
Five very short, related essays by @AishaAriella are a good introduction to how she's transforming our understanding the history of photography. For her, photography can't be separated from the powerful interests that it so often served. https://www.fotomuseum.ch/en/explore/still-searching/articles/155239_unlearning_the_origins_of_photography
Azoulay < @AishaAriella> argues that photographers' connections to elites -- political, commercial, cultural -- granted them the "right" to take photos of the colonized, the marginalized, the poor, & the oppressed, while giving the "subjects" of their images no rights at all.
A big thank you to Laura for bringing these resources to my attention. https://twitter.com/_LSaunders_/status/1343937321331265540?s=20
Recently, people have started to look at resistance to photography. (Once you think of it, it's surprising that it's taken so long.) I like Scott Matthews' work a lot. I wish this article were freely available online. https://www.southerncultures.org/article/protesting-the-privilege-of-perception-resistance-to-documentary-work-in-hale-county-alabama-1900-2010/
If someone asked, "What topics in photo history need to be explored?" I might say, "Resistance to photography." As some have pointed out, resistance has always been there, but photographers usually edit it out. Happily archives sometimes show it to us. (Marjory Collins/FSA, 1942)
