In photography, “Master and Slave” flashes is lazy language. We can do better.
Mar 28, 2021
Haje Jan Kamps
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If you’re an avid photographer shooting with remote-controlled strobes, you’ll have come across this issue: One set of flashes is connected to your camera, and it controls all the other flashes in the photo studio.
Almost all of these systems use the same terminology: “Master” for the trigger that is doing the controlling, and “Slave” for the receiving strobe. It seems convenient because the language is so clear — until you pause for half a moment, and think about what that use of language does to normalize and casualize literal slavery.
So, what’s the problem?
I’ve written a few books about photography — and many of the books cover the use of multiple strobes. I’m ashamed to admit that in every one of the books, I’ve written about the flashes and the remote control pair as master/slave. I could attempt some revisionist history and claim that I thought about it carefully and decided to stick with that terminology because that’s what the camera manufacturers use. But it wouldn’t be true: The reason I used those words was that they lost all meaning to me — when I referred to the strobes, I’d talk about them as masters and slaves, without blinking an eyelid — and without considering how damaging this is to people who have actually experienced slavery in their families.
The fact that I used this language casually and without thinking about it is not okay. Slavery, and the master/slave relationship, is one of oppression, and literally of one human being owning another. The fact that this became the standard terminology in something as far removed from slavery as photography is really embarrassing all around, and shows how little thought people put into naming these terms in the first place. And that’s not okay either. Words matter.
I can’t change the past — but I can change the future. I am writing to my publishers and requested that when there are re-prints or second editions of the books, that the language gets edited and updated, and I vow not to use that word pair again in the future in a photography context. I am also encouraging them to encourage all their other authors to move away from this terminology, too. And I am writing a letter to all the photography manufacturers who are still using this terminology, to ask them to revise their position and change the names of these features.
So what do you call it instead?
Photography equipment manufacturers have whole teams of marketing and product development people, and they’ll be able to come up with some great terms, I’m sure. Not all of the words below make perfect sense (and I’d be the first to admit that some of these terms have their own problems in terms of power-dynamic-based language) — but the point is that if I can make up a score of alternatives in ten minutes… So can you.
My personal favorite is the Parent / Child combo. There’s a language of care and respect in there, and it is clear what the dynamic is. In addition, there’s the benefit that neither ‘parent’ nor ‘child’ are in common parlance in a photography context, so perhaps this is a good place to start using it.
A few pairs:
- Parent / Child
- Controller / receiver
- Tx / Rx ( short for Transmitter / Receiver)
- Remote / Receiver
- Transmitter / Receiver
- Trigger / Receiver
- Sender / Receiver
- First / Second
- Lead / Follow
- Exporter / Importer
- Employer / Employee
- Operator / Agent
- Group Leader / Group Member
- Boss / Assistant
- Driver / Passenger
- Motor / Cog
- Sergeant / Soldier
- Leader / Follower
- President / Vice president
- Manager / Worker
It’s so easy to make these changes — and all it takes is one photography manufacturer to lead the charge. Yes, it’s going to be confusing for all of ten seconds, but it’s worth it to stop normalizing slavery as a generic term for power dynamics. It isn’t okay — and it never was.
Editor’s note: Nikon actually stopped using the master/slave terminology about 20 years ago. Canon also stopped using it in new products as of 2017 and both Fuji and Leica both stopped using the terms in 2020.
About the Author
Haje Jan Kamps is a Dutch photographer, author, inventor, and the CEO of virtual conference platform Konf. You’ll find his photographic work on Instagram, his articles on Medium, and lots more on his website. You can also sign up for his free photo school over at Photocritic. This article was also published here and shared with permission.
We love it when our readers get in touch with us to share their stories. This article was contributed to DIYP by a member of our community. If you would like to contribute an article, please contact us here.
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88 responses to “In photography, “Master and Slave” flashes is lazy language. We can do better.”
What?!? Just because language “offends” you it does not mean that you are right. It’s language. Words have different meaning when used in different contexts. Grow up!
So you either didn’t read the article or you’re okay with the part where they wrote “Almost all of these systems use the same terminology: “Master” for the trigger that is doing the controlling, and “Slave” for the receiving strobe. It seems convenient because the language is so clear — until you pause for half a moment, and think about what that use of language does to normalize and casualize literal slavery.”
So you’re okay with using slavery-related terms in photography when we could like…just not do it? ?
Nobody related the “master” and “slave” terminology used in flash photography with slavery, until some liberal-wanna-be-politically-correct a$$hole came and started whining about it.
On the same topic, i’m extremely offended because manufacturers make only black and red cameras, while i’m white. Please write an article about racism in Canon, Nikon, Sony etc., and demand that they make equal amount of white cameras. Or are you okay with using racist cameras?
I maintain my opinion and think this is a waste of time. PC is censorship and control. Words are tools for the language. I can offend you using nice words only. Language is not oppressive. Your interpretation of the language is. Your reaction of your interpretation is. Grow up!
It IS language, and language is always evolving. These terms offend a lot of people actually, and there’s no reason to keep using them just because they’ve always been used.
Are we so inflexible that we can’t acknowledge these words have negative connotations?
Photography has always been a creative and expressive medium that is constantly evolving and changing. Photographers need to evolve too.
They do not have *negative connotations* to anyone but virtue-signalers who see *injustice* in mere words. Flaunting one’s perceived sense of virtue by being offended by mere words is both pompous and cowardly. If you want to do something about slavery that exists today, one has only to lobby the Arabian, Indo-Pacific countries that still use and traffic in it. Put your efforts there, not in the elitist, effete faux-moral enlightenment of the other slavery that demands that language be altered and censored. Anyone who conflates a useful technical term with real human slavery is in fact attempting to enslave others through censorship and denigration.
Language is the most powerful force there is.
These terms don’t just offend “virtue signalers” (nicely dismissive cliché, by the way) but they have a place in history. People are trying to move away from the days in which words like these could be used without consideration to the reactions of others. No one loses by choosing other words, and there are plenty of perfectly good options.
As to your second point, there are legions of people actively campaigning to deal with modern-day slavery; that does not detract from the fact that many people are also concerned with the generational repercussions of America’s historical slavery. Your point is simply a deflection and is irrelevant to the issue.
your last remark has a strong whiff of insecurity to it.
Let’s call them flash and ober-flash
Subsequent, simultaneous, synchronisable, single touch sparks
Talking chinese already?
Give. Me. A. Break.
There is nothing wrong with using those terms in engineering. Please stop.
Peter Verdone exactly, these idiots need to pick up a dictionary.
Which is it? “Please stop” or “there is nothing wrong” ?
Please stop with the inane ‘victimized mindset’. This language is not a problem. There is no victim here.
Sargent and private pyle
If grievance culture is your thing then please let Twitter decide everything that comes out of your mouth. I will not be lorded over by a bunch of professional victims who cannot ever be appeased.
Another idiotic article, snow flake mentality
GTF wae your PC pish!!! They’re fecking strobes nae people FFS!!!!
I just painted one white and one black, just because you were so bored you had to find something to nag about to make other peoples lives difficult. and if you don’t like it, just get back to advising people to use a tripod
If that is the case, black and white photography is racist… wtf
Wow. No surprised to see all the closet racists come to defend the use of the terms.
Transmitter/Receiver is what I’ve been using.
I bet the people angry about this change haven’t even noticed that many of their flashes have been using ‘Tx/Rx’ for these terms for years.
It’s like the old ink blot test. What you see is what you are. If you see “racist” in every word then maybe it is you…
There are a lot more here then I was expecting. Holy poop.
Photography: CANCELLED!!!!!!!!!!
I must be failing at life if an issue of such grandeur does not even remotely spark any thoughts in my mind, aside from the wildly obvious “maybe it’s time to unfollow this page”
So you use this terminology?
Alexander McKenna It is written on my flashes. It’s not their fault that this is written on them, they were born this way. I accept them the way they are. I don’t want to mode-shame them by calling their modes names they did not ask for…
Get better flashes then? And stop shooting with trash. Your excuse for being racist is you are lazy and you use trash gear. Nice ?
Alexander McKenna You champion political correctness while attacking my innocent flashes. Call me a racist for… laughing at this non-issue among a global pandemic and making fun of a 20 year old label on my photography equipment? Here’s an idea: why not go and fight ACTUAL RACISTS, if that is your life goal. Or is championing political correctness from your smartphone, built by people more close to actual slaves than the flashes, more convenient? If you don’t like the labels, then please, for the love of ART, go and sell all your stuff that has them, so people who would to use them to create art instead of useless controversy online can buy them for a better price! That would be making a difference. Coincidentally, if you happen to come across some Canon 580EX-es or even decades old 550EX-es in your trash, do send me a message so I can take them off your hands, ok pumpkin?
Words do not fight back, racists do!
And now its all of a sudden racist?? How did you get there? Heard the word and now you want to use it in a sentence, any sentence!!
If that’s all you understood, yes!
Some people don’t realize how totally overboard their reactions are. But if this makes you happy, go for it.
PC btw lul
Alexander McKenna there’s a pc master race joke in there somewhere
There isn’t nice try racist.
Batman and Robin it is then.
Sorry Batperson.
EPIC COMMENT!!! hahahaha
Personally, I’m a fan of DommeSub or TopBottom flash pairing terminology.
Personally I use Tx/Rx but that’s probably due to having a background in electronics and radio control vehicles.
I’m sure people understand how bad slavery is, so I don’t think that Master/Slave “normalises and casualize slavery”. I mean, most people didn’t see the connection between the terms, so I don’t see how it normalises actual slavery?
Having said that, it should be replaced, but there needs to be agreement on the new terminology to standardise it. There are much better options, especially transmitter/receiver or similar.
Anyway, I’m going to stick to Tx/Rx
Nobody really made the connection between the terminology and actual slavery until recently, so I don’t see how it normalises or casualises actual slavery.
I do think we should replace it with Transmitter / Receiver or Tx/Rx for short. It’s a more accurate terminology.
Tx/Rx? Texas/prescription?
That’s the trouble with contractions and acronyms
No. The trouble is with people like you willing to surrender your language to any creep that demands it at their whim. Why didn’t you make your suggestion last week or last year?
OH GOOD LORD…ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Political correctness will kill this world. You cannot talk about bicycles in my language because pedal is also pejorative term for homosexual. You cannot talk about archery or photography because of one commonly used verb.
Krzysztof Szyper it’s almost like language changes with time! How weird!!
You compare retarder levels of PC to language evolution? Maybe read Orwel’s 1984 first.
Krzysztof Szyper my dude, you should recognize that words have some influence on how we think. If this is the knoll you want to die on, consider getting a hobby.
I’m not your dude.
I want everyone to stop calling these light devices “Flash” because it reminds me of something I read about a guy in a coat and no pants. So please stop using the term flash. And what’s up with “White” Balance?
Have you asked whether the flash units are offended by that or just assuming and being offended on their behalf ?
Stephen Cottle you are Flashist! ???
Flashes have rights too lol?
Ditto for Transmitter and Receiver like we do for audio. Partial also to dependent/independent lights.
Did they already got against Male-Female contacts in electronics and radio?
It is a sad time we live in when we are judged by our verbal ticks. In a generation’s time, we will be rejudged by that new generation’s verbal criteria. The words we use are NOT important. What we mean by them IS, and it is this that we should expect to be judged on. To suggest that people who use the master/slave terminology are condoning racism (as someone here has done) is a banal conflation of ideas.
Skip the cringe-making judgement of others. It’s designed to deprecate those others while empowering yourself by seeking the approbation of the self-servingly virtuous. It is just a different form of being overbearing.
The fact that there is an irony to my comment is not wasted on me, and I am necessarily hoisted by my own petard, but at least I know it.
Anal & Lube
Two non racist stand alone words when used in succession implies they work together…
Stick to photography and stop with the politics. We get enough of it elsewhere.
We don’t need to do better. There is no problem with this terminology… Whinging lefties need to stop this crap
Michael Gara I lean to the left and this is a dumb conversation. Master and slave makes perfect sense for flashes….
I identified the strobe in the picture as an elinchrom. That’s the only thing I’ve found relevant here. Thanks
I’m surprised at how many are offended by the mere suggestion that something be changed, and how vehemently they object.
PocketWizard started using the terms Transmitter/Receiver when they were released in the 1990’s, long before the camera manufacturers even introduced control mechanisms to their flash units. They’ve maintained that terminology since then; it’s certainly more accurate, in any event.
It is not about the terms, it is about the understanding of language. Master/Slave in photography means something totally different than the same terms in social relations, for instance. Not being able to contextualize the difference means either a poor judgment or a hidden interest in levelling the language. Either way, the idea of changing the terminology is somehow childish.
I’m no longer surprised at how many are offended by the mere suggestion that something be changed.
https://youtu.be/gFP4dJHJXoI
Commander and receiver ?
How is it racist? Oh, because you think the world is the US and master can only be white and slave only black.
I agree, this just shows how little people know what real racism means. Everybody is a slave to something in their lives and a slave has got absolutely nothing to do with race in this paticular case. Ive never seen such a dimwitted article and replies in my life.
Really – taking the moral high ground after defrauding thousands of people with the Triggerfrap Ada fiasco is just wrong Mr Kamps. Words do matter, but so does honesty and openness – you can’t pick and choose your version of the truth.
It’s apparent from all the self-righteous comments by those offended by a simple change in nomenclature that strobes aren’t the only thing being triggered…
So what’s next… eliminate male and female adapters?
I still use master / slave. I call my master folders master. I know they want to kill the first amendment and no freedom of speech. And they have done a pretty good job of it. But getting offended is part of living. Get used to it. We will be entering riot season in the summer. If you are stuck in a riot you will be butthurt worse than some words. Stay safe.
Much ado about simplistic terms. The Bible mentions slaves and masters, guess we better rewrite it too.
Just because someone is offended doesn’t mean they are correct. Maybe I should be offended because they are offended. Let’s get over ourselves and get on with the daily chores of making a living and I promise not to be offended…..
When you let people like Kamp and his comrades take over the language and dictate how YOU speak and what you say, you have already lost the battle.
“But it never caused any harm before!”
Yes, it did. But those affected by it never had the power to speak up before.
When you allow people to dictate to YOU how YOU speak YOUR language, YOU have already lost the battle. English is a very rich language allowing the speaker to say the same things in a variety of ways. Now, in the year 1984, you have no choice. It’s being demanded that you say things in only one way, THEIR way.
Remember Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury…all should read it or – re-read it.
Ugh! Too far. We’re talking about objects here. Not People. If you call your assistants “slaves” and refer to yourself as their “master,” then you’re not dealing with a full deck. Racism exists but not everywhere and in everything, for goodness sakes! Acknowledge that some words have a negative history/ connotation, but that the recent context is completely unrelated! https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/common-racist-words-phrases
In a world so grim, with actual, real, slavery still rife, sitting in our nice houses discussing the sanitisation of terminology just seems so fucking trivial. Why not focus on something important? We CAN do better, and this is not the way.
There seem to be two reactions: either people are “PC cancel culture social justice libtard warrior snowflakes”, OR they are “hate-filled mindless evil racist bigoted xenophobes”. I strongly suspect both miss the mark badly!
Could there be a “middle ground”? There are interesting conversations to be had about language — always are. Language both shapes & reflects culture. Right now, “we” are going through a period of significant change in race relations, and hopefully there will be a positive outcome.
Eliminating these terms from use won’t solve anything, nor will calling people “bigots” for using them. But perhaps the movement away from such casual usages reflects the notion that most of us want to get beyond the more oppressively racialized aspects of society. There’s not much to be lost in giving up the terms “master” & “slave”, and while I don’t think it, in itself, accomplishes anything, the vitriolic reactions against getting away from the terms is unnecessary. Can a productive conversation not be had?
Short story: where I live, a group of elementary school teachers wanted to change the name of schools in Canada named after out first Prime Minister because of his rather dubious dealings with Indigenous peoples. My oldest childhood buddy is an Indigenous guy whose family was directly harmed, and harmed badly, by policies of the Canadian government. We were driving somewhere when a story came on the radio about it. “Hear that, Bill?” he said. “That’ll fix everything!”
“parent-child” has elements of love and respect? give me a break! it won’t be long before people complain about abusive fathers or mothers and you’ll be looking for a new woke term.
before everyone forgets, I have a bunch of speedlights in which I can use one light as the trigger and all the rest are optical (uh, oh, i can’t say that word!). all of my speedlights have s1 and s2 on them because they can be triggered from the light I use as the trigger in two different modes. but, to use the word “trigger” is to promote gun violence! Oh no! I’m now in trouble.
and Haje Jan Kamps, all of your suggestions have the idea of superior and inferior status attached to them; that puts so many people down!
Main and Secondary (M, S). Boom! Everybody is happy. No manufacturers have to change the letters and they can mean what you want them to mean.
What a load of shit. So over this crap. NEVER have I considered racism when using “master” and “slave” setting up my flash gear. Seriously over this ridiculous PC bollocks. Yet another in a long list of ridiculous statements like Dr. Zeus being banned for racial connotations, and criminals being martyred because they are a given race….WTF people, there are more pressing issues like global warming, famine, poverty, deforestation, Covid-19, drought, animals and plants going extinct because of us.