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Allen Murabayashi

On the depiction of Africans in photo contests

As a child during the 1980s, I grew up with a weekly diet of TIME magazine and the evening news. The famine in Ethiopia during the decade generated an endless stream of news filled with images of Black bodies, so much so that my entire conception of the continent was built off the tragedy of a single nation. To me, Africa was a desert wasteland of starving people – a thought conceived through photos.

Of course, Africa is hardly that. The second-largest continent with the second largest population boasts beaches, deserts, mountains, fertile farmland, pyramids, and wine country. And yet, images of abject poverty – particularly those of children – continue to perpetuate visual stereotypes of a place that inherited the racist moniker of “the dark continent” in the 19th century by Europeans seeking to justify imperialism and slave trade.

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How Blaine Harrington makes a full-time living as a travel photographer

Blaine Harrington began his career in photography in the 1970s after a brief stint of racing motocross. His connections to the racing world led to assignments covering races around the country and in Europe – piquing his curiosity about travel. After studying at the now-defunct Brooks Institute of Photography, Harrington spent a few years working in fashion photography, but eventually pivoted to travel photography to sate his desire for the more authentic subject matter. His network and skill as a photographer allowed him to live a peripatetic life working for publications like National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, Delta Sky, and many more.

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A student plagiarized an African artist. Then his work was exhibited at the Milan Photo Festival

In 2014, curator Simon Njami engaged Ethiopian artist-photographer Aïda Muluneh to interpret Dante’s Inferno for an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art entitled The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists. Muluneh’s “The 99 Series” featured a model set against a light grey mottled background, with her body and face covered in white paint, and her hands dipped in red.

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Apple tackles child sex abuse imagery: Slippery slope or necessary intervention?

Apple recently announced a new set of features aimed at combatting Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), which include the ability to scan a user’s phone and iMessages. Since the announcement, the company has reiterated the numerous safeguards that they developed, but privacy advocates have bemoaned the potential for abuse and “mission creep.”

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Ring light: You’re using it wrong

At some point during the history of the influencer, the ring light became an accessory de rigueur, fueled by the availability of cheap Chinese-made devices. The original ring light was invented for dentistry by Lester A. Dine in 1952 because of its ability to cast an even light with diffuse shadows in a confined space. An ideal solution for photographing teeth and gums.

The same concept can be found in make-up mirrors, which surround a magnifying mirror with a ring of light. This combination provides a pleasing contrast to overhead lighting that tends to exaggerate lines, wrinkles, and sunken eyes. The advantage of a circular design is that the subject is equidistant from the light source, providing even illumination.

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Did the media frame the George Floyd protest coverage for white eyes?

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In a Mother Jones piece, Ramenda Cyrus analyzes A1 coverage of last year’s George Floyd protests and contends that the media is still relying on old tropes to represent Black Americans. In this episode of Vision Slightly Blurred, Allen and Sarah take a look at her arguments and the supporting voices of author Martin Berger and “Reading the Pictures” publisher Michael Shaw.

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Who should own photos of slaves?

In 1976 while rummaging through an attic of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in search of old museum publications, editorial assistant Lorna Condon opened a drawer in a wooden cabinet. Inside, she found a number of flat leather cases which contained a series of daguerreotypes of partially and fully nude Black people. Names were handwritten on paper labels identifying 7 individuals: Alfred, Delia, Drama, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty with assumed ethnicities and occupations. The daguerreotypes represented some of the earliest known images of slaves in the U.S.

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An open letter to the NPPA on ethics

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To my fellow photographers & photojournalists, and members & leadership of NPPA:

I have been a photographer since JFK was President, and a member of NPPA for 52 years. I have never been, nor thought of myself, as a “Lens-based worker.” I find no shame in calling myself, and those in related vocations, photographer or photojournalist. Let’s leave it at that.

These days, that might disqualify me in some eyes for what I am about to say, but in spite of a current fad to dismiss anything aged or graying (or older than 32), I feel compelled to speak about the current state of affairs in photography in general, and at NPPA in particular, especially given the credit NPPA is taking for participation in the Photo Bill of Rights (BoR). (I was a college student when the operative phrase was “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” I get it.).

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The photographic phases of depicting COVID-19

In many parts of the U.S. the reality of social distancing policies have only been in place for about a month. Yet during that time and the few weeks that preceded it, photographers have already churned through a number of phases to document and depict the outbreak.

In a sense, these phases represent visual tropes – a way of immediately understanding that the photo is illustrative of the pandemic. And in its laziest form, these tropes are, in the words of Fred Ritchin, mere “signifiers.” The utilization of a “signifier” elucidates very little about a story. At its best, photos of the pandemic give us context and pull us in emotionally in a way that words can’t. Joshua Bickel’s “zombie” protestor photo is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

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