Episode 58 - The Photographer’s Gaze and Represent
Speaker: Hello and welcome back to the show.
Speaker: I'm photographer Matthew Jordan Smith Today we're going to talk about representation Today we're gonna talk about representation, race, power, and the photographer's gaze Let me begin with a question that every photographer should ask.
Speaker: Who has the power when a photograph is made?
Speaker: If we think back in history to images that we can all relate to right away, or many of us anyway Like the picture of the napalm girl from Vietnam.
Speaker: Recently, that image has become controversial There's an entire Netflix special based on who really shot the image So who has the power when a photograph is made?
Speaker: Is it the person standing in front of the camera?
Speaker: Or is it the photographer looking through the viewfinder?
Speaker: Or maybe it's the editor who selects the final image.
Speaker: Or could it even be the publication that writes the caption?
Speaker: Or yet again, is it the client who's paying for the assignment?
Speaker: All valid questions today in 2026 When we think about copyright law, who owns the copyright?
Speaker: The answer is the person who creates the image From that moment the image is made, the creator, the photographer, owns the copyright unless they sign it away Now yes, when it comes to very important images, it is the audience that ultimately decides what the image means Just a month ago, July 4th, 2026, there was an image that ran Mainly in America, that had a strong impact.
Speaker: The image was of a Black woman When a train filled On a subway filled with What many have called the new face of the KKK And from the picture, everyone was young Hate is like a cancer And it affects the young and the old Now, photography can seem like a simple exchange.
Speaker: One person stands on one side of the camera, another person on the other side and the relationship, it is rarely equal Photographer decides where to stand, where to place the camera chooses to frame and decides when to press the shutter The photographer determines what is included and what is excluded And later, if it's press, someone else decides which image will be published, how large it will appear, what words will surround it And what story the viewer is being asked to believe That is power If you had to pick the most powerful pitcher of 2026, now I know the year is not over yet at all This is just the first month of September But if you had to pick one picture that stood out in your mind this year, what would it be?
Speaker: For me personally, it would be that photograph on the East Coast in the United States that took place on July 4th, 2026 which was the 250th anniversary for America What are we celebrating again?
Speaker: Whenever photography intersects with race, culture, poverty, migration, conflict, gender, or identity, that power becomes even more important Today we are talking about one of the most complex and controversial subjects in photography, representation, race, power, and the photographer's gaze.
Speaker: Who is behind the camera?
Speaker: Who controls the narrative?
Speaker: Can a photographer responsibly document a community they do not belong to It's a valid question When does visual storytelling become stereotyping?
Speaker: When does cultural appreciation become Appropriation And why, oh why, oh why are marginalized communities so often photographed through pain, struggle, poverty, and trauma, but rarely through joy, imagination, success, intimacy, or ordinary life?
Speaker: Now, I'm not saying that this conversation is about telling photographers...
Speaker: Now, I'm not saying that This conversation is not about telling photographers that they cannot only photograph people who look like them.
Speaker: I'm not saying that It's not about creating fear around for reffing across cultures It is about becoming more conscious of the responsibility that comes with the camera Because photography does not simply show the world Photography, real photography, authentic photography helps shape how the world is understood And this is one of the dangers of AI I know last month we talked all about AI But when it comes to the truth We have seen how AI is being manipulated.
Speaker: We have seen how AI is being used to manipulate the truth Last month in Japan, there was a 7.1 earthquake Right away almost, someone was using AI to distort the truth There is a responsibility that comes with the camera Let's dive into the photographer's gaze When people use the phrase the photographer's gaze, they're talking about the perspective through which a person, culture, or event is seen Every photographer has a gaze That gaze is influenced by our experiences.
Speaker: Yes, education, culture, assumptions, fear, desires, and beliefs Even when we think we are simply documenting what is in front of us, we are making choices We decide what is worth photographing We decide what feels beautiful We decide what feels threatening or what looks exotic or ordinary or powerful or vulnerable or dignified or tragic We may not consciously use those words, but those ideas influence the images we make Imagine that five photographers walk into the same neighborhood One photographer may focus on damaged buildings.
Speaker: Another photographer may photograph children playing.
Speaker: Another still, the local business owners While yet another searches for crime and poverty Another one still in that very same neighborhood may make intimate portraits of families inside their homes, showing love and family connection Now all five were in the same neighborhood, the same place, but they did not tell the same story.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Because photography is not simply a record of what was there It is a record of what the photographer chose to see That, my friends, is the gaze Yes, the camera may be mechanical, but seeing is never neutral We bring ourselves to every image That does not make photography dishonest.
Speaker: It makes photography human But it also, but it also means photographers must take responsibility for the perspective they bring The first question is not only what am I photographing, the deeper question is why am I seeing the subject in this particular way?
Speaker: is a bias.
Speaker: That bias is caused by many factors What you see on the news, what you believe, how you were raised, and that affects what you take pictures of or how you take pictures The camera, it has a history of power To understand this controversy, we must or To understand this controversy, we must recognize that photography developed outs- alongside systems.
Speaker: To understand this controversy, we must recognize that photography developed alongside systems of political, economic, and colonial power Cameras were used to document exploration, war, science, policing, medicine, race, empire and conquest And those photographs were often represented as objective evidence But many of those photographs reflected the reliefs-- But many of those photographs reflected the beliefs and power structures of the people making them Some communities were sometimes, some communities were sometimes photographed as strange or primitive, uncivilized, or available by observation I grew up seeing pictures of Africa But when I finally went for myself in twenty twenty-five, I saw a very different picture than the pictures that I saw when I was a child growing up With a camera, you decide what to, what to document You see, very often people were posed, measured, categorized, and displayed without meaningful control over how their images would be used.
Speaker: The camera did not simply document difference It sometimes helped create and reinforce ideas about difference People from powerful nations frequently photographed communities they considered foreign or exotic in different ways that weren't flattering, and those images remain in our minds Those resulting images were then shown to audiences who had little direct knowledge of those communities.
Speaker: The photograph became the viewer's evidence.
Speaker: It said, "This is what these people are like." Now, whether that was true or not, we didn't know.
Speaker: We had a photograph, and we believed it And sadly, the person being photographed often had no voice in that conclusion.
Speaker: They did not choose the frame.
Speaker: They did not write the caption they did not control the publication They may not even under have, they may not have even understood where the image would appear This history of photography still affects visual culture today But now it's being manipulated more than ever.
Speaker: But now it's being manipulated more than ever We can see it today in travel photography that treats local people as visual decorations We see it in images that romanticize poverty We see it in photographs that represent entire countries as if they exist only through hunger, conflict, disease, and instability We see it when people from one culture are photographed as mysterious, timeless, or untouched by modern life even when that description has little relationship to the actual experience Now, the photographer may have good intentions, but good intentions do not automatically remove the influence of history.
Speaker: That's why context matters We are not only making individual pictures, we are adding images to a much larger visual history So who controls the narrative?
Speaker: A photograph does not speak entirely for itself Its meaning is shaped by selection, sequence, caption, placement, and context Imagine a photographer spends three weeks documenting a community.
Speaker: During that time, the photographer makes thousands of images We are in the digital age, so that's very easy to do There are photographs of people laughing.
Speaker: There are images of families eating together.
Speaker: There are photographs of work, worship, music, education, celebration, frustration, and daily life.
Speaker: But when the story is published, the editor selects only images of hardship The article is titled with language about despair The captions emphasize poverty.
Speaker: The audience is never shown the full complexity of the community Who created that narrative?
Speaker: Was it the photographer, the editor, the publication or the audience's expectations The answer may be all of them Decades ago, I was interviewed for a story that ran in a magazine, and it was about race All the photographers were of color After the interview, they photographed us all together Everyone was laughing and it was joyful and exciting and a, just a fun time being together.
Speaker: But the cover of the magazine showed everyone as if we were mad.
Speaker: I hated that cover and the story that went along with it because it was edited to show a different point of view, not the reality of what that day was like or what I heard being in the room Now, who created that narrative?
Speaker: Was it the photographer This is why photographers must think beyond the individual frame.
Speaker: We should ask, who commissioned the story?
Speaker: What story does the client expect What images are more likely to be selected?
Speaker: And what assumptions does the intended audience already hold?
Speaker: When it comes to assignment photography, is the assignment designed to discover something true?
Speaker: Or is it designed to confirm a story that has already been de- decided When I think back to that cover story and shoot about diversity in photography I often wonder what story they had already designed, what story they had already been decided before the shoot Sometimes photographers enter a community with a conclusion already in mind.
Speaker: They are not looking They are collecting evidence of a predetermined narrative And that's dangerous If a publication sends a photographer to document poverty The photographer may, the photographer may begin looking only for visual signs of poverty.
Speaker: A broken window becomes important.
Speaker: A child in worn clothing becomes important A tired expression becomes important Meanwhile, the local entrepreneur, teacher, artist, athlete, parent, or community leader may be ignored because they do not fit into the expected story A partial truth can still create a false impression A photograph can be factually accurate and narratively misleading at the same time That is one of the great ethical challenges of visual storytelling What story are you telling?
Speaker: Let's get back to that first question.
Speaker: Can an outsider photograph-- Can an outsider photograph a community responsibly?
Speaker: Can an outsider photograph a community responsibly?
Speaker: This is one of the hardest questions in this conversation Can someone photograph a race, culture, religion, nationality, neighborhood, or community they do not belong to fairly?
Speaker: Some people argue that only insiders can fully understand and represent their own communities.
Speaker: They have lived experience.
Speaker: They understand cultural signals They may recognize nuances that outsiders would miss They may also have greater trust and access.
Speaker: Others argue that photography has always involved crossing boundaries.
Speaker: An outsider may notice things that people inside the community grant, take for granted.
Speaker: A respectful outside perspective can sometimes reveal meaningful connections.
Speaker: So what is the answer?
Speaker: I do not believe responsible photography requires us to photograph only people who share our background If that were the rule, much of documentary, portrait, travel, fashion, and editorial photography would become impossible But access is not the same as understanding.
Speaker: Curiosity is not the same as auth- Curiosity is not the same as authority And being welcomed into a space does not give us unlimited ownership over the stories we find there That said, an outsider can photograph a community responsibly.
Speaker: But responsibility requires more than arriving with a camera.
Speaker: It requires research.
Speaker: It requires listening humility and building real relationships And this is a hard one.
Speaker: It also requires a willingness to be corrected We must all understand that the photographer may not be the most important voice in the story A responsible outsider does not arrive as one expert or someone else's life.
Speaker: A responsible outsider does not rev-- A responsible outsider does not arrive as the expert on someone else's life.
Speaker: They arrive as a learner.
Speaker: They ask questions before making conclusions They allow people to define themselves And they understand that the community is not simply visual material You see, the greater danger is not being an outsider.
Speaker: The greatest danger is behaving as though being an outsider does not matter if you work in the field of photojournalism You have a responsibility to tell the truth And that truth may not be your own But tell the full truth
