Here's something interesting in this morning's New York Times
The Racial Bias Built Into Photography
Sarah Lewis explores the relationship between racism and the camera.
Can a photographic lens condition racial behavior? I wondered about this as I was preparing to speak about images and justice on a university campus.
“We have a problem. Your jacket is lighter than your face,” the technician said from the back of the one-thousand-person amphitheater-style auditorium. “That’s going to be a problem for lighting.” She was handling the video recording and lighting for the event.It was an odd comment that reverberated through the auditorium, a statement of the obvious that sounded like an accusation of wrongdoing. Another technician standing next to me stopped adjusting my microphone and jolted in place. The phrase hung in the air, and I laughed to resolve the tension in the room then offered back just the facts:
“Well, everything is lighter than my face. I’m black.”
