New York, New York
Written by duckrabbit
In this city, and the nation at large, no group has suffered more in the current recession than black men. The recent spike in joblessness that has nearly one in five black males unemployed in 2010 is the end result of decades of high unemployment rates for blacks, with devastating consequences for them as individuals, for their families, and for the neighborhoods in which they live.
Why is that as the evidence continues to stack up that established and and supposedly enlightened photographers refuse to enter a debate about race and photography, demeaning race as an unimportant distinction in measuring diversity?
This is what Gary Knight has to say when the make-up of VII photo agency was questioned (not by duckrabbit):
‘So for the record I would like to say that when it comes to VII – personally (thats important because we are all different at that pIace and I don’t speak for anyone else) – I don’t give a shit about diversity based on gender – or colour – they are way to trivial and limiting factors to consider when isolated like that – diversity based on culture, curiosity, interests, class, education, nationality, politics, spirituality, life experience, age, sexuality (not sex), geographical location – now you are talking – they are way more interesting than gender and skin colour – lets celebrate someone because of who they are not what they look like.‘
Now before you all jump in duckrabbit needs to point out that by all accounts Gary has done an awful lot to encourage photographers from many different countries in the world. He may or may not regret writing these words, and you have to admire him for saying something, but its indicative of a knee jerk reaction to the debate.
There’s a contradiction in making a living out of photographing inequality but refusing to even acknowledge how much a factor race is within your own industry. That’s an issue for all of us including us here at duckrabbit.
Nothing can change until a problem is acknowledged.
“Some kids I’ll describe as friends say I am race obsessed,
the luxury of your opinion shows that you are blessed.”
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (5 Comments)
Sigh.
Quoting Stew’s “Black Men Ski” for the second time in about a month.
“Some kids I’ll describe as friends say I am race obsessed,
the luxury of your opinion shows that you are blessed.”
-–Stew: http://www.ted.com/talks/stew_says_black_men_ski.html
Gary needs to see this vid. Really.
It is definitely not a diverse industry – but in saying that, it’s a very complex picture (excuse the pun). Class has got to be the predominant control on this issue, as I know many of my friends could not afford to be ‘photographers’ as their parents didn’t have the cash. As such, the issues of race tie in to this system, e.g. typically, ethnic minorities are in the lower income brackets.
I once asked a photographer from the BPPA for advice and he told me “to make a small amount of money from photojournalism, start off with a big amount.”
Once we see the financial restraints, then we take in the cultural reasons (i.e. Cockneys don’t often want to be farmers), and the list continues.
Sean, you make some good points. Social inequality is a massive factor and here in the UK the gap is huge.
I’m sure Mr. Knight is a well intentioned guy who has, in fact, done a lot of commendable things in his life. And, at this stage in life, he’s pretty much expanded his horizons as far as they will go. But being the intelligent person that I’m sure he is, if he were ever to take a long, hard (and above all honest) listen at what he said- even he would have to admit that he built up one ridiculously long winded strawman with a dreamland succession of attributes that does not readily exist within the confines of any one human anywhere on earth.
Of course, since ol’ Gary has never run into this perfectly diverse and imaginary candidate that would initiate complete and utter integration at a scale mortals can only imagine… well, sadly, he’ll just have to continue to settle for his amazingly diverse white guys.
Laughing …
I don’t think we should get too hung up on Gary. I notice though VII have announced a very diverse group of new white people to join the agency.