ZEKE Magazine: Fall 2021, Photography and Social Change

ZEKEFALL 2021 VOL.7/NO.2 $15 US
THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY
FEATURED ARTICLES
AWAKE IN THE DESERT LAND
Photographs by Sofia Aldinio
PATH AWAY
Photographs by Nicolò Filippo Rosso
FROM TULSA TO MINNEAPOLIS
Photographs by 27 Black photographers documenting
this extraordinary time in American history
THE EMPTYING OF THE ANDES
Photographs by Emiliano Pinnizzotto
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL CHANGE
By Emily Schiffer
Published by Social Documentary ZEKE FALL Network 2021/ 1

But before delving into how documentary
photography is evolving, it is essential
to first address the fight to change
the internal practices and structure of the
photo industry itself.
One of the biggest problems in
photography is the widespread percep-
Years ago,
tion among audiences that photographs
during an artist talk at a journalism
conference, I stated that I the extent to which a photographer’s
don’t lie. Most people don’t understand
don’t believe documentary photographs
create social change. A consume. This knee-jerk assumption of
personal biases impact the images we
colleague stood up and interrupted my objectivity allows audiences to accept
talk to disagree with me. Our impromptu an image as truth: forming hard-andfast
opinions about events and cultures.
debate--across an audience of photographers
and journalism students--exemplifies Without critical assessment from the viewers,
the photographer has tremendous
an important dialog within our industry
that is pushing the boundaries of how power over the value viewers assign to
photography is created and used. Our the lives of the individuals pictured. Such
power and representation have plagued
the industry since the advent of photography
as a medium. Recent momentum
in acknowledging and changing these
practices prompted the formation of
collectives such as Women Photograph,
MFON, Diversify Photo, Ingenious
Photograph, and the Authority Collective,
to name a few. Meaningful reflection
about representation, connection, and
accountability are imperative starting
points for anyone assigning, publishing,
Photography &
By Emily Schiffer
disagreement hinged on different definitions
of what “social change” looks like
and means. I was asserting that images
create awareness--which unreliably
evokes empathy, shifts mindsets, and
inspires action. He was arguing that
empathy is change. We were both right.
Differentiating between raising awareness,
fostering empathy, inspiring action,
and changing conditions enables photographers
to precisely define their goals
and approaches for individual projects.
A whole world opens up when
we think of images as the start
of a creative process—rather
than the end goal.
unchallenged authority creates a dangerous
paradigm. Historically, photographers
have been overwhelmingly white
and male, which means they produced
images of cultures, communities, and
people that were not familiar to them.
On top of that, editors, curators, critics,
and other industry gatekeepers have
also historically been white and male,
which further normalizes the white male
gaze within the industry writ large, and
silencing other perspectives. This set-up
causes glaring omissions in documentary
narratives. Practically speaking,
omissions amount to erasure, which is a
quintessential tactic of colonialism and
oppression. Despite important changes
in who is able to access the profession,
and in how we think about photography,
statistics show that the demographics of
the industry remain largely unchanged.
In 2020, 80% of A1 images in leading
U.S. and European newspapers were
created by male photographers. Issues of
exhibiting, or creating photographs, let
alone those attempting to create social
change through photography.
Sometimes, viewers need to physically
see the errors in the dominant narrative
in order to shift their mindset. Artists such
as Alexandra Bell, Wendy Red Star,
and Tonika Lewis Johnson visualize the
crisis of biased representation, enabling
viewers to reflect on their perceptions
of self and others. Bell redacts racist
language in New York Times articles and
sometimes changes the imagery to reflect
a more accurate depiction of the facts.
She then wheatpastes the before and
after versions of the articles onto outdoor
public walls: simultaneously holding the
media accountable, and forcing viewers
to confront their complacency when
consuming media. Similarly, Red Star
annotates photographs of Crow chiefs,
originally taken by Charles Milton Bell in
1880. Red Star uses red ink to provide
historical and contextual information,
2 / ZEKE FALL 2021

Photo by Dawnee LeBeau. From Women of the
Tetonwan, a portrait project celebrating the matriarchs
of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. ​
Winona Kasto is one of our Lakota Lolihan' (cooks).
It's a great honor to be able to offer food as nourishment
and healing, especially at ceremonies and
community events.
with individuals directly impacted by the
issues their work addresses. Still, for others
who photograph solo, like Dawnee
LeBeau, an ongoing and deep community
dialog dictates what is created and
shared. It is worth noting that all of the
aforementioned photographers identify
as part of the communities they document.
Even people depicting their own
cultures need accountability, and ceding
power enriches photographic work.
Listening, critical discourse, and reflection
Social Change
on one’s own biases are even more vital
for outsiders.
thereby informing the viewer and commenting
on non-Indigenous people’s lack
of knowledge about Indigenous culture
and history. Aware of how profoundly the
media impacts our sense of self, Johnson
created Englewood Rising, a communityled
billboard campaign created and
paid for with funds raised by Englewood
residents and activists to, “showcase
Englewood’s everyday beauty and
counter its damage-centered narrative.”
Created by the community, for the community,
and in the community, this wildly
popular project demonstrates how well
someone from the community can portray
other members within it.
Discussions about representation
and whether or not a solo perspective is
always desirable have prompted photographers
to share authorship and power
in the image-making process. More
horizontal approaches sometimes take
the form of a collective voice, composed
of many professional photographers, as
is the case with Kamoinge (founded in
1963), a collective working to “HONOR,
document and preserve the history and
culture of the African Diaspora with
integrity and insight for humanity through
the lens of Black photographers.” Other
artists, like Brenda Anne Kenneally, facilitate
decade-long photography workshops
With the politics of representation
fresh on our minds, and
the raising of awareness as a
baseline, we will look at examples
of photographers leading
our industry in a more responsible,
and impactful direction.
Whether making images collaboratively,
using them to create conversations,
creatively installing them in communities,
or amplifying existing grassroots
organizing, these projects engender
active engagement from both the people
impacted by these issues and the viewers
seeing these projects--even when there is
not an easy or clear solution.
More →
ZEKE FALL 2021/ 3

Photography & Social Change
Projects
That Inspire
Introspection
and
Challenge
Oppressive
Narratives
Ariana Faye Allensworth
Staying Power
Ariana Faye Allensworth’s
background in social work,
urban studies, African
American studies,
and education enables her to
deconstruct power imbalances
in the photo industry.
Her latest project Staying
Power, implements her critique
of how photography is
taught, and how narratives are
constructed and consumed.
Staying Power is “a collaborative,
multidisciplinary art and research project
celebrating the people’s history of New
York City public housing. The project
offers counter-narratives to the stereotypes
surrounding the New York City
Housing Authority (NYCHA) through
the lens of residents raised and living in
NYCHA.”
The project emerged out of
Allensworth’s collaborative work at the
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP):
visualizing injustice by mapping open
data, collecting oral histories, producing
storytelling projects in collaboration
with tenants, facilitating mutual aid, and
researching real estate speculation and
corporate landlordism.
At AEMP, Allensworth worked closely
with residents displaced by the demolition
and downsizing of public housing.
New York City, home to the largest public
housing stock in the United States, is
privatizing and defunding many public
housing programs, a radical shift in
how these programs are managed and
operated. “It’s an important moment to
document public housing reform, and
to create room for people’s narratives,”
explains Allensworth. The dominant
‘failed public housing’ narrative stood
in stark contrast to the breadth of lived
experiences residents described.
Housed online, Staying Power is a
platform for publishing, discussing, and
presenting the NYCHA community’s
histories. The content is also available
through an open-ended series of booklets
and postcards, distributed to subscribers
through the postal service.
The project explores how this community
creates, cares for, and
builds their own archives.
“Memory is a valuable historical
resource,” explains
Allensworth. “Staying
Power explores how
photography, ephemeral
and personal collections
of objects, and interviews
with residents can offer
alternative modes of knowledge
that retell the public housing story. The
project positions residents as archivists
and storytellers.” Allensworth’s goal is to
refute stereotypes that eclipse people’s
lived experiences, and assert that all residents
are worthy of inclusion in NYCHA
history.
To gather material, Allensworth
facilitated photography workshops,
conducted long-form oral histories, and
photographed ephemera. Teaching
photography as a way of collaboratively
building narratives poses a challenge: on
the one hand, taking someone’s creativity
seriously by helping them develop
their craft is the ultimate form of respect.
On the other hand, traditional photoeducation
practices—which literally teach
how to see—undermine the message that
Image by Ariana Faye Allensworth. A poster created
for Staying Power featuring an image of Michael Casiano,
a resident of LaGuardia Houses on the Lower
East Side of Manhattan.
everyone’s perspective and story is valid.
Allensworth didn’t want her aesthetic
preferences to influence the work residents
created. She structured her workshops
using the “Photo Voice” model,
inviting participants to create visual
answers to questions about their public
housing experience. Instead of focusing
on aesthetics, the group discussed the
messages the images delivered, and critiqued
the artists’ visual communication.
Similarly, Allensworth’s method of
collecting oral histories positioned the
narrator to author their own story: “I
don’t show up with a predetermined set
of questions, so they’re not reduced to
whatever container I create for them.
They decide what it is that they want to
put on record.”
Though created primarily for NYCHA
residents, Staying Power is also an important
resource for educators, activists, and
policy makers looking to counter erasure,
claim space, and amplify residents’
experiences without filtering them through
a third party lens.
4 / ZEKE FALL 2021

Empathy and
Healing as
Social Change
Rosem Morton
Dear Survivor
The pandemic of sexual assault
is often presented through the
lens of statistics: Every 68
seconds an American
is sexually assaulted. Every 9
minutes, that victim is a child.
Nine out of every ten victims
of rape are female. 48% of
victims were sleeping or at
home. Research tends to focus
on who is assaulted, by whom,
where and when. What happens
afterwards is understudied. What happens
afterwards is profoundly important.
We know that most survivors suffer in
silence. And we know that most survivors
continue to live. Rosem Morton created
Dear Survivor to make resilience accessible
instead of elusive. Designed to build
community, Dear Survivor is a collaborative
photo project, workbook, podcast,
and resource platform exploring what it
means to survive sexual trauma.
Housed online, the project is a sort of
one-stop resource for survivors and their
allies. Morton explains, “Our website
hosts a growing audio-visual collection
empowering sexual trauma survivors
through the expression of their own narratives.
These stories highlight survivor
experiences, illustrate the prevalence of
sexual violence, and question how we
can break this cycle.”
Dear Survivor grew out of Morton’s
creative exploration of her own trauma.
“I tried to make sense of it by looking
inward and photographing myself.” The
process of making and sharing these
images brought connection with other
people, as well as new trauma.
Not everyone knows how
to be an ally, and Morton
found that overall support
for survivors is lacking.
Still, her work resonated
with viewers, and she
was inundated with survivors
confiding in her, often
breaking their own silence.
They, too, craved connection,
community, healing, resources, and allies
who knew how to support them. Morton
decided to photograph other survivors,
but quickly bumped up against the constraints
of traditional documentary photography.
She decided people needed to
tell their own stories, and that she needed
to embrace all forms of expression. Many
of Morton’s participants found healing
through creativity, so Morton set out to
tap into their artistic processes, believing
those expressions were as important to
share as stories of resilience.
Morton and her participants continue
to aggregate resources and stories to
cultivate the space they need. “I haven’t
found anything out there that delineates
possible questions, gathers resources,
and showcases other people surviving.”
The Survivor Workbook claims strength
in vulnerability, and looks at what people
do when pain blocks hope. It includes
images of survivors’ art, guided questions
to help people creatively explore their
trauma journey, letters to survivors, and
multifaceted resources. The workbook
Self-portrait by Rosem Morton. The Dear Survivor
Project features the stories, art and images of
survivors.
is housed on the Dear Survivor website,
alongside Morton’s photographs,
survivor audio recordings, and a monthly
podcast. Viewers can respond to stories
or share their own via a submissions
portal. Morton continues to expand her
audience. Her platform is used at mental
health centers and universities in the U.S.
and Philippines, and the project is currently
engaging the public as a travelling
outdoor exhibition.
Created for people deep inside the
healing process, Dear Survivor also
invites people to shed oppressive cultural
narratives. It refuses to accept the conditions
of silence, isolation, and grief.
Popular narratives use the term “victim”
instead of “survivor,” and depict people
forever crippled by their trauma. Morton
refutes this trope by excluding it from
her platform. “Although this trauma has
changed us for the rest of our lives,”
Morton explains, “we have found ways
to move forward. It’s important for both
survivors and the community to see the
spectrum of our resilience. This is part of
a more comprehensive narrative about
survival.”
More →
ZEKE FALL 2021/ 5

Photography & Social Change
“My debt: not only is it affecting me financially, mentally,
emotionally, [but also] I want to live like normal
people. It affects my mom, it affects my dad, and it
affects my boys. My past is haunting me.” —Keshena,
who, with interest, owes $50,000 in LFOs.
Projects That
Incite Action
and Change
Conditions
Deborah Espinosa
Living With Conviction:
Sentenced to Debt for Life in
Washington State
6 / ZEKE FALL 2021
Lawyer and photographer
Deborah Espinosa fuses her documentary
and legal practices to
expose how court fees and fines
criminalize poverty, disproportionately
punish low-income communities of color,
and force formerly incarcerated people
under the lifetime supervision of the
criminal justice system. Espinosa
explains, “Since the 1980s,
people have been sentenced
not only to prison, but also
to a lifetime of debt in the
form of court costs, fines,
fees, and victim restitution—
accruing interest at a rate
of 12%. In Washington State,
this debt is called Legal Financial
Obligations or LFOs. The 12% interest
begins to accrue on the day of sentencing,
including while a person is in prison.
At 12%, the original amount imposed
doubles in five years. Many county courts
send unpaid accounts to collection agencies,
who charge an additional 19% to
50% interest. In Washington State, 80%
to 90% of criminal defendants cannot
pay. Once released from prison, a person
usually has 30 days to make the first
monthly payment. If they miss too many
payments, the court may summon them. If
they fail to appear, they can be arrested.”
Living With Conviction shares personal
stories of the impacts of LFOs through
photography, video, and audio recordings.
“My goal is to elevate and amplify
people’s stories, to create a platform for
people with LFOs to speak on their own
behalf.” Espinosa asks participants to
describe how they want to be portrayed,
choose the setting of their portrait, and
collaborate on the editing process. Audio
and video recordings enable people to
speak for themselves. Espinosa’s work
enacts change from several angles:
raising public awareness, connecting
participants with legal resources,
and advocating for legislative
reform.
LFOs exist in all states,
yet are rarely included in
mainstream conversations
about incarceration or rehabilitation.
Thus, at the base
level, Living With Conviction
accomplishes the important task
of familiarizing the public with this
pervasive issue. The project demonstrates
how the financial pressure of LFOs impact
entire families: reverberating across
individuals’ mental health, self-care,
resilience, rehabilitation, and recovery.
Keshena, a project participant explains,
“My debt: not only is it affecting me financially,
mentally, emotionally, [but also] I
want to live like normal people. It affects
my mom, it affects my dad, and it affects
my boys. My past is haunting me.”
Espinosa raises awareness among
new audiences by sharing Living With
Conviction via public art installations,
exhibitions, artist talks, publishing
her work, and providing educational
resources. She speaks about LFOs alongside
project participants in schools, community
centers, and at art institutions. “In
the end, these are not my stories to tell,
so it’s important for participants to speak
directly with audiences. I also do this to
break down the wall between communities
with criminal histories and those without.
We all want the same thing. To take
care of our families. Connecting in person
really helps get audiences invested.”
The project does not stop at awareness.
Individuals with LFOs are invited
to connect with legal help. Living With
Conviction partners with grassroots organizations
run and facilitated by formerly
incarcerated individuals such as, I Did the
Time and the Civil Survival Project, which
advocate for reform and provide legal
assistance to people with LFOs. Living
with Conviction supplements this work
by training formerly incarcerated leaders
to prepare court forms to request for a
reduction of LFOs, and capture stories
about court-imposed debt for legal advocacy
and public education.
Living With Conviction seeks to eliminate
LFOs. After Espinosa and participants
made this work available to the
Washington State Legislature in the form
of postcards and a magazine, lawmakers
voted to amend state policy: creating the
right to a waiver of accrued interest on all
non-restitution LFOs, and stopping interest
from accruing on all future non-restitution
LFOs. Cited as an important influence on
the legislature’s policy reform, Living With
Conviction exemplifies the impact of fusing
photography with activism.

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Contents of Fall 2021 Issue
Awake in the Desert Land
Photographs by Sofia Aldinio
Path Away
Photographs by Nicolò Filippo Rosso
From Tulsa to Minneapolis: Photographing the
Long Road to Justice
Photographs by 27 Black photographers documenting this
extraordinary time in American history
The Emptying of the Andes
Photographs by Emiliano Pinnizzotto
Migration from the Northern Triangle
by Daniela Cohen
Interview with Joseph Rodriguez
by Caterina Clerici
Photography & Social Change
by Emily Schiffer
Book Reviews
Edited by Michelle Bogre
ZEKE FALL 2021/ 7