Early in my photo career, I made the mistake of often thinking the former. Now I see the vital importance of changing the broken process that begins the very moment a photographer/photo editor enters the industry. And no, it doesn’t mean that quality standards have to be relaxed. https://twitter.com/millie/status/1352618659643088899

It felt like some badge of honor to have, as a young photo person, learned the game enough to have succeeded in finding those crucial first internships. Now it’s easier to see the way my privilege — not my “skill” at playing the internship game — helped me get the foothold.

I’m glad to see the system is starting to change, with more opportunities to get work in front of editors early in one’s photographic life. But now’s a good time to ask yourself: am I actively contributing to an exclusionary system in photography?

Am I, as a photo editor, only looking at the work surfaced to me through pipelines that I recognize as ‘valid?’

Does my organization offer me the opportunity to publish work by names I don’t recognize?

What can I do, as a photo editor, to use my employer’s resources to make the opportunities I had in the early years of my career available to more photographers?

And even more so, how can I actively work to make sure that those unpaid internships at our publication don’t exist anymore, because we’ve made them redundant with new, year-long paid fellowships? Funded mentorships? Staff positions?