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Nikon promotes D850 with 32 men and 0 women, community reacts fiercely

by 67 Comments

There’s been quite a hype about the new Nikon D850. Even me, generally not obsessed with gear, am thinking of saving up and treat myself with this beast of a camera someday. But, judging from the list of Nikon Asia, Middle East and Africa Ambassadors – this camera may not be for women. Their promotional team contains 32 men and zero women. It could be an accident, or maybe they really think this camera is too hard for the ladies to handle.

FStoppers published the article discussing whether Nikon D850 is for men only. The criticism soon came from all over the web, both from male and female photographers.

In the world where we work so much on the equality, it’s hard to believe that a company like Nikon could have made a slip like this. They responded to criticism in a tweet reading: “Unfortunately, the female photographers we had invited for this meet were unable to attend, and we acknowledge that we had not put enough of a focus on this area. We want to thank the community for raising this and challenging us to do more to support the creative talent of our female photographer community. Enabling the creativity of our community sits at the very heart of Nikon and we will continue to keep improving on our innovation and our support for you.”

Even though from this statement looks that, indeed, it was just accidental – Nikon didn’t state which female photographers they had invited to be among the Asia, Middle East and Africa Ambassadors.

Photographer Rebecca Douglas was one of the female photographers who also reacted to this story. She got a response from Nikon UK, stating that this was an isolated case:

“[…]female photographers were unfortunately not represented and this was completely due to circumstance and not design. At a global level, Nikon has invited four photographers to act as Ambassadors for the launch of the D850, one of which is Italian photographer, Rosita Lipari.”

They pointed out that they “take pride in celebrating female talent and have included many brilliant female photographers in our Ambassador line-up over the years.” Furthermore, they appointed to the UK and USA Nikon Ambassadors which have women in the line-up.

After all this, I don’t know what to think. On the one hand, I believe it was really a matter of circumstances and not chauvinism. It simply sounds impossible that a company like Nikon does it on purpose. But on the other hand – how difficult can it be to find talented female photographers in any part of the world? Only I know dozens of them, and I live in quite a small country. So even if this was just a slip, it creates a bad picture of Nikon nevertheless.

[via FStoppers]

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  • Steeve Dupuis

    Wow ! Only men and no naked women.This is a real scandal! LOL!

  • Stop posting rubbish

  • Social justice…. Don’t confuse me with facts, I have my mind made up! I don’t want to hear the other side of the story. 🤔

  • Kevin

    …outrage started by Sony execs, due to Nikon not giving them any credit for the sensor fabrication of Nikon’s designed D850…

  • Nicole Lau

  • Now we have to work out how many are sitting in wheelchairs and their sexuality.

  • people getting upset about this.. .. People need to get a fucking life.

  • From the looks of the comments on here, looks like NIkon know their customer base well – a bunch of misogynists.

  • I think it was only for the Japan trip and it is a big oversight. There are however other Woman Nikon ambassadors shooting the Nikon D850 like Tamara Lackey Photography. This looks like somebody trying to anger everybody and make news.

  • Brian Drourr

    A whole 4 femail shooter? Oops sorry? Come on Nikon is aying a man’s game and they know it. Shame on Nikon.

  • In the London D850 press event at Loft Studios, Amy Shore, a Nikon evangelist was very much present sharing her enthusiasm and skill. One talent out of three may have been the best pick for woman representation at that time.
    Personally, over the years, I have seen nearly an invasion of female photographers in my line of work. Magazine illustration, that is.

    • Yes but the article doesn’t talk about Nikon Europe or Nikon north Sheri a or Nikon South America so it doesn’t count 😜😂😂😂

  • Momtographers everywhere are wicked pissed

  • Considering there are many women only groups, I see nothing wrong with a male only group.

    • It implies it’s a male only brand. Personally, I couldn’t give a crap about this – I’d rather work for recognition than have it handed to me purely to fill a quota because I’m female. But I can also see why it’s pissed other people off.

  • I’m sure if they were all women, no men would notice or comment. Right?

  • Hold on, what if some of those men identify as women? 😜

  • DLS

    First world problems…

  • Who fucking cares, not every single pr video or photo needs to be mixed race and sex. Next thing you know the men’s fireman calanders will feature woman and the fg’s will get upset.

  • Oh Japan. Lived there 15 years.

  • Who gives a shit I don’t see anyone complaining tampons are only for women or old spice is only for men this shit is going too goddamn far.

    • I demand periods for Men! Then men will need tampons…

    • I agree wtf cares?

    • Tampons aren’t for women, they’re for people who menstruate. And if you operated a camera with your penis, that analogy might be relevant.

    • Victoria Burr comment of the day award.

  • All the best photographer are men because men have superior spacial awareness.

  • Maybe, just maybe, there are more men photographers than women..? Maybe that is the simple reason why majority of the ambassadors are men?

    • Maybe, just maybe, that’s because woman are ostracised in the field, and bullshit ads like this are part of that problem?

  • Idiotic attention getting article started all of this. It’s such false logic at work here… smh

  • Ok so this does look bad. Now let’s put some perspective on this: Nikon Asia, Middle East and Africa. So what is the equality situation in those areas? Are there an equal number of female photographers to make photographers? Would those particular cultures traditionally result in having equal representation if both genders? These factors heavily influence the representation of both genders as Nikon ambassadors.
    Next, how about Europe north and South America? They were not mentioned here. Why is that? Would it break down on the perceived inequality of gender representation?
    Third aspect: how many female photographers chose Nikon over another brand? Obviously Nikon would select from Nikon users. Was this considered in the equation? What if only 10% of all female photographers use Nikon, would that equate the 4 female photographers from those specific regions?
    And to put a real gender discussion on this: why does the comparison only look at male versus female, when everywhere you read about rights for bisexual, lesbians, gays, trans genders, multi genders and gender less? Why did this little investigation not consider those people? (Admitted, BLG are preferences and sexual preference is irrelevant to the discussion as those can be reflected amongst all genders). Ok maybe a stretch.

    My point is, like most news, we only get to read what we read. Anyone can twist something good into something bad by putting a specific perspective on it. So rather than take the report at face value, check the underlying facts.

    • Blah blah blah blah excuses.

    • Victoria Burr ah another feminist that has absolutely no sense of reality. good luck with that…

    • Victoria Burr If those are excuses, why not do something more constructive and face these excuses rather than sticking to the tactic of a five year old?

  • Bah- who cares? Sounds like people are digging for something to complain about. I’m still gonna stick with Nikon. Got too much invested in it to be picky

  • So what? Lefties be gone.

  • Meh. Doesn’t bother me none. This chick will rock my Nikon just as good as a man can! Just like I rock my turnout gear and a set of irons!

  • Nobody cares.

  • Oh the idiocy of gender warriors!

  • Oh seriously? So tired of this. Who the fk cares!? Y’all really have nothing more important to worry about?

    • Nothing more important than the systematic oppression of women? Actually no, not today.

  • Oh please! there is enough social engineering PC crap as it is, this is a big nothing burger !!

  • DPJ

    Who actually really cares? So they’ve only used men, is it really the biggest problem in the world right now?

    • Aankhen

      A+ on logic (if something isn’t the biggest problem in the world right now, we should ignore it). Not so hot on understanding systemic problems and consequences, though… 🙁

  • Fake or joke! 🤣

  • There are plenty of women on their ambassadors page.
    http://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/nikon-ambassadors/index.page

    • 7 out of 24. Not plenty. 12 out of 24 would be representative of population. And if your argument is that it is representative of p proportions the professional photographers then that is representative of industry bias.

    • My argument isn’t that it’s representative of anything other than their are plenty of women represented as Nikon ambassadors. I couldn’t speak to the percentages of women vs men who are pro photographers vs percentage of population.

      These specific 32 ambassadors are from a specific region, which may or may not have a high percentage of femal pro photogs.

  • MBH

    How about bouncing back with an ad featuring 32 women and no men?

  • Koen Cambré

    What a non-issue… But exactly the kind of thing the gender extremists on Twitter would kick up a stink over as a collective, making it seem like the whole world is upset at this. Meanwhile, 99% of the world doesn’t care.

  • Even if all 4 of the women you invited miraculously couldn’t show up…32 dudes and 4 women? That’s the best Nikon could do?

  • If someone can provide actual proof that Nikon set out to NOT include women..then you have something to be angry about.

  • As a woman…I can care less about it…i’m not offended..I’ll still buy Nikon AND the D850…..

  • Shame…

  • There are so many organizations out there aimed specifically at benefiting women and girls, frankly I can’t think of any or one that is for boys/men (I’m sure there are a handful vs the thousands for the other side).. so the fact that they do have women, even a few isn’t very problematic.

  • North Polar

    So let me get this straight, Nikon reached out to a number of female photographers and ambassadors, who declined, as is their right.

    Considering Nikon probably requested these people specifically because of the quality of their work and how it would promote the D850, I don’t see an issue.

    Sex has nothing to do with talent or the quality of the work the photographers put out. If they want the best photos to promote their new camera, then get the best photos and bring those photographers, end of story.

    Legally (in the US) people are equal. In terms of talent, skill, performance under stress, etc, people completely are not. I’d only bring on the people that I knew could handle it and represent my company well. Beyond that point, I couldn’t care who you are, what you do in your free time, what your gender is, or if you have a pet rhesus monkey, as none of it is my business.

    Do your job, do it well, get paid. End of story. Good workers get brought on and paid more, poor ones get less opportunities until they meet standards.

  • Let me get this straight….Nikon only invited 4 female photographers? Out of how many in the world of professional female photographers? I understand that these FOUR photographers couldn’t make it, but seriously?

  • cbenci

    Please stop posting these types of stories. The site is about photography, not social issues.

    There are plenty of sites devoted to the injustices of not getting your way.

    Yesterday it was the one about the ‘renowed’ band photographer’s facebook post and now this.

    Save these stories for SJW Photography not DIY Photography.

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