Look 3, the Festival of the Photograph: Past and Present

Look 3, the Festival of the Photograph (Charlottesville, Virginia, June 11-13) is about to enter its third year of existence. In many ways, it’s been spectacularly successful. It’s brought to my town--to venues that are literally right down the street from my house--some of the finest photographers working today: James Nachtwey, Sally Mann, Eugene Richards, Bill Allard, Mary Ellen Mark, Maggie Steber, David Alan Harvey, and many more. The Festival has also introduced audiences to superb photographers whose work they may have never otherwise encountered. Jen Davis is one whose photos particularly blew me away. The exhibitions, slideshows, talks, and workshops have been--with the inevitable odd exception--dazzling.

And, yet, the experience of being a black man at Look 3 has not always been a comfortable one. It’s been lonely. In 2007 and 2008, the festival’s first two years, none of the more than 40 featured photographers and far too few of the audience members were African or of African descent. Similarly, very few Asian or Latino/a photographers were among the featured artists. Look 3 has been, to a large degree, the Festival of White Photographers.

 

(From an instillation of photos by Platon at the downtown transit center, Charlotteville, Virginia.  On display throughout the festival.)

It’s also been painful to see black people (and brown people, as well) relentlessly depicted as victims of warfare, famine, and disease, as perpetrators of unspeakable crimes, as junkies, pushers, and thugs.  Slideshows and exhibitions, that is, have too often reduced my people to photojournalistic cliches. War, famine, crime, and disease are important problems--no argument there. But where are the images of the lives that the vast majority of us live? As the New York Times photographer Chester Higgins, Jr., has pointed out, Africans and African-Americans (and, I’m sure, Latinos and Asians, as well) are tired of being defined by a small fraction of their communities.

 

(From an outdoor instillation of photos by Paolo Pellegrin on the downtown mall, Charlottesville, Virginia.  On display throughout the festival.)

I exchanged emails on this subject with Nick Nichols, Look 3's founder, in 2008. Since then I’ve had long conversations with members of the festival’s staff on the same topic. I’m convinced that they understand that the exclusion of black, Asian, and Latino/a photographers is a problem on many different levels. (With this year’s festival, I’m happy to see, they’ve begun to take steps to address these issues.)

Let’s start with aesthetics. A major photo festival should reflect as much of the photographic world as possible. As Reflections in Black, an traveling exhibition of African-American photography sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, and Snap Judgments, the International Center for Photography’s exhibition of African photography, have shown, black photographers have challenged notions of what photography can look like and what it should do. (I’m talking about African-American and African photography because that’s my field. Those who are more familiar with Asian and Latino photography will have similar examples.) To pick just a couple of examples, the mid-twentieth-century African photographer Seydou Keita introduced the world outside of Africa to a new way of seeing that has greatly influenced photography, as whole. The contemporary Ghanaian photographer Philip Kwame Apagya is having a similar effect on western photography.

Black, Asian, and Latino/a photographers see and photograph their communities differently than outsiders do. This is Chester Higgins’s point. I confront the issue every time I teach my introductory course in African history. I have to begin by telling the students that much of what they think they know about Africa is wrong or terribly incomplete. Contrary to what the mainstream media has led them to imagine, most Africans are not refugees, most are not starving, most have neither Aids nor malaria, and nobody is shooting at them. Stephen Mayes, the managing director of the photo agency VII, recently said something similar. He commented, with dismay, on the state of contemporary photojournalism. Among other things, he said that he saw far too many images of "suffering black folk." He called instead for an "expanded vision of black life."

 

(From "Trees," an outdoor instillation of photos by Tom Mangelsen, on the downtown mall, Charlottesville, Virginia.  On display throughout June.)

That expanded vision has always existed within black (and Asian and Latino/a) communities. One only has to look at the work of a Carrie Mae Weems, a Jamel Shabazz, or a Santu Mofokeng (once again to pick only a few examples) to see images--and an understanding--of African and African-American life and history that no one outside of these communities could possibly produce.

Finally, there’s the question of networking. Excluding black, Asian, and Latino/a photographers from Look 3 means denying them the chance to have their work seen by editors, photo buyers, possible mentors, and others in the industry. It places them at a professional disadvantage.

Look 3 has announced that there will be no festival in 2010. Nick Nichols says that the staff needs a breather. I believe him. I know several of the staffers and have seen the exhaustion in their faces. I’ve also been told by a staff member that an extra year’s worth of planning will allow the festival to tap the sort of expertise that will allow them to open themselves up to the entire world of photography. I respect the festival’s good intentions. I also know that some gentle prodding from the outside won’t hurt a bit.

Comments

[Neal Jackson]

Well stated John. As in so many other areas of Euro-American society, in photography the scarcity of people of color is manifest. Ironically several of the icons of photography are in fact African-American - think Stanley Greene and Gordon Parks - yet their example has yet to sensitize the larger world. I know LOOK3 is sensitive to this, but its just hard to turn an ocean-going ship (US society) which has traveled at full speed in one direction for several hundred years.

[Karen Waters]

QCC was delighted to have the opportunity to have our work at our Urban Farm, the QCC Farms! Garden of Goodness, documented as part of LOOK3. Once we were contacted by a couple of photographers, I logged onto the Festival website to see what exactly to expect. I was dismayed to see only one image of an African American on the entire site, and he was in bed. My consternation only grew when I learned that the photographer I directed to a tent city mainly occupied by caucasian homeless men, elected instead to photograph latinos at Southwood. However, those images showed a much greater diversity of experience among those individuals versus what was shown of African American life in Charlottesville, which was limited to our garden and folks on Hardy Drive. It saddened me to think that the people who attended the festival from around the world would go home thinking that all African Americans live in poverty.

[Liz Diemer]

Thanks so much for the update on how the festival has been going; I've loved reading your opinions and perspectives on the various elements of the festival thus far. The exhibits have been looking fantastic, I'm without a doubt going to have to make a point of being in town for next season.

[duckrabbit]

Hi John,

just come across your brilliant blog, with thoughtful and insightful writing.

As somebody who lived in Ethiopia, and loved that country and its people with all my heart, I despair with the representation of African people.

Following the debate we started on the duckrabbit blog about the fact that PDN had a 24 strong all white judging panel for their review of the year I believe there is still a long way to go before color is no longer an issue in the photographic world (as in many others)

http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2009/06/pdn-passive-racism/

[Mark tomalty]

Hi John,

Being a resident of Cville and knowing that LOOK won't be held next year
why don't you seize the opportunity and mobilize photographers of color
and host your own festival to showcase those that have been overlooked
or who have been flying under the radar.

Seems like an incredible window of opportunity to effect some awareness.
Perhaps, you could call it 'Look Again'.

Best,
Mark

[John Edwin Mason]

Hello, Mark.

I couldn't agree more. And a number of us have started planning an event. Please stay tuned. We hope to announce something within a few months.