MISSION STATEMENT:

“The Photo Bill of Rights provides a framework to build a more inclusive and equitable visual media industry. Additionally—through toolkits, programming, and resources—we hope to empower individuals and institutions to leverage their relative power and reimagine healthier relationships among one another and with our communities.”

ABOUT THE PHOTO BILL OF RIGHTS:

The Photo Bill of Rights is authored by a group of individuals from grassroots organizations working toward dismantling harmful practices in the visual journalism and editorial media industry: the Authority Collective, Color Positive, Diversify Photo, The Everyday Projects, Juntos, the National Press Photographers Association, Natives Photograph, & Women Photograph. 

We have come together in the midst of COVID-19 and the movement to fight police brutality and systemic racism, to assert the rights of all lens-based workers and define actions that build a safer, healthier, more inclusive, and transparent industry.  

Now is the time to decolonize our industry by addressing the harm systemic white supremacy has had on our visual literacy, and our access to unbiased reporting and fair and equal opportunities. Anything less impedes our potential to be a genuine mirror to the world. 

We aim to challenge the gaze that has been dominant in media by empowering those who have been most marginalized: BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA+ lens-based workers whose perspectives offer a counterpoint through their work. We also condemn all aspects of discrimination. 

Institutions have the power to be a catalyst for change, but they must also understand and dismantle their participation in systemic discrimination. Equally, we as individuals have a responsibility to act as agents for change.

We acknowledge and honor those people and allies who have worked to diversify the industry. Their mentorship of photographers and photo editors alike has opened doors over the last several decades. Our efforts will continue to support and expand that work. 

We believe in the processes of growth and learning, which prioritize restorative rather than punitive forms of accountability. This is rooted in the work we are building as a group as well as the ways we choose to engage with others in professional settings.

The ways in which the media has been used to colonize, disenfranchise, and dehumanize is not a remnant of the past. Our goal is to demonstrate that operating with respect, integrity, and trust are foundational to doing meaningful work, both interpersonally and as a wider industry. 

We offer this framework for lens-based workers globally and aspire to amplify existing industry transformations worldwide. We hope this can be another starting point for individuals and organizations beyond the U.S. to advocate for the specific needs of their communities. We will join in, amplify, and support any effort to that end. 

We encourage normalizing that minds can change and that we are in a perpetual state of challenging and questioning our own participation and practices within a white supremacist system. We hope this collaboration sparks positive and fruitful conversations that activate change within our industry.

As we honor the legacy of previous generations, we hope the collective labor of the Photo Bill of Rights plants additional seeds toward re-imagining the media industry today and for years to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ORGANIZATIONS:

Authority Collective is a group of womxn, non-binary and gender expansive people of color reclaiming our authority in lens-based visual media. As professionals in the photography, film and VR/AR industries, our mission is to empower marginalized artists with resources and community, and to take action against systemic and individual abuses in the world of lens-based visual work.

Color Positive is a non profit organization focused in amplifying Black Talent in commercial photography, styling and directing. Many of the artists we showcase also work directly with us in schools as speakers, counselors and mentors. We strongly believe providing information and access to students who are interested in pursuing the arts as a career.

Diversify Photo is a community of BIPOC and non-western photographers, editors, and visual producers working to break with the predominantly colonial and patriarchal eye through which history and the mass media has seen and recorded the images of our time. Our international online database is used by editors at most major media outlets seeking to diversify their rosters of visual storytellers and we create networking, exhibiting, speaking, community-building, and resource-sharing opportunities for our members.

Juntos Photo Cooperative is a group of image-based artists working in the Sonoran desert and Appalachia, to create stories accountable to the communities they collaborate with, and are a part of.

The National Press Photographers Association is dedicated to the advancement of visual journalism – its creation, practice, training, editing and distribution – in all news media and works to promote its role as a vital public service. The NPPA is a 501c(6) non-profit professional organization with over 4,500 members. It opposes violations and infringements of the rights of visual journalists or their organizations and strives to promote a better understanding of visual journalists’ problems. The NPPA also supports legislation favorable to, and opposes legislation unfavorable or prejudicial to visual journalists. It also works to maintain freedom of the press in all its forms, and to execute the Constitutional rights of journalists.

Natives Photograph is a space to elevate the work of Indigenous visual journalists and bring balance to the way we tell stories about Indigenous people and spaces. Our mission is to support the media industry in hiring more Indigenous photographers to tell the stories of their communities and to reflect on how we tell these stories. Our database consists of working storytellers on Turtle Island (North America) and is available to photo editors, creative directors, and those who routinely hire photographers.

The Everyday Projects uses the power of photography to challenge stereotypes that distort our understanding of the world. We are creating new generations of storytellers and audiences that recognize the need for multiple perspectives in portraying the cultures that define us. As a nonprofit, we combat systemic misrepresentation through our educational programming and by providing structure, support, exposure, and direction for the diverse and worldwide range of @Everyday photographers and communities.

Women Photograph is a non-profit working to elevate the voices of women and non-binary visual journalists. Our database includes more than 1,000 independent documentary photographers based in 100+ countries. We also operate an annual series of project grants for emerging and established photojournalists, a year-long mentorship program, and a travel fund to help women and non-binary photographers access workshops, festivals, and other developmental opportunities.

THANK YOU

We would like to thank our colleagues, friends, and family who supported this effort:

The Authority Collective Board of Directors; The Everyday Projects Advisory Board, Board of Directors, and Community Team; the Women Photograph Board of Directors;
Amy Yenkin, Hannah Reyes Morales, Mary Kang, Wacera F. Njagi, Ramon Dompor, Shiyam Galyon, Tabanitha McDaniel, Dr. Marquita Byrd, Alicia Wagner Calzada, Dr. Martin Smith-Rodden, Deb Pang Davis, Sarah Pfohl, Danielle Scruggs