Friday, October 16, 2009

Race In Photography Conference, Part II

Well, they're tossing ideas about at Prison Photography on what it would take to actually realize the above said conference. While it would be great to have an actual face to face somewhere (for obvious reasons)- there are also the obvious limitations of who can actually make it there, wherever there would be. Perhaps we can (also) have a round robin of sorts, different aspects of the discussion covered on individual blogs. Obviously, it would also be nice to have some of the artists in question participate:

Uhh, Mr. Mcginley, why do all your photos look like a 21st century Hitler Youth wet dream?

Or perhaps one of the more prominent online photo mags might want to consider it as one of their themes? And it would be nice to get something in print. En Foco is a photo organization that has been focusing on minority photographers since the 70's for exactly the reasons we've been discussing- perhaps, perhaps they might want to get involved... Yes, it's definitely going to take more than the efforts of just one person!

We also need to bring to light some of the historical aspects of what we mean when we talk about responsibility. If its anything that has become evident, it's that many people are oblivious to the historical legacy of racism in this country (and elsewhere), and how that has influenced and been portrayed in photography throughout history. Many people really don't have a clue...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like the way the idea is progressing. Everyone has suggested that jumping in bed with a photo-festival or sponsoring org would be the way to go. Man, I have just reread comments on lightstalkers about this and it would certainly be an area that enough people would gravitate toward to make it worthwhile.

I like your notion of bloggers pre-event committing to write on an aspect of the issue to really get some dialgoue going. If only one day was replaced by a joint committed effort then that'd be better than folks publishing what "they think is dead good at the moment".

Not that I think a day is sufficient. I reckon we should spread out the enterprise over a few weeks, allow us to pass on the baton and digest each others thoughts. It would help us get a lot of ambiguity out of the way before sitting down in the same room.