UK photography body removes image 'playing to racist stereotypes'

An image of a black woman posted by one of British photography’s leading organisations has been removed after criticism that it was racially insensitive.

Critics said the photograph, captioned Naomi Black Samba, which was posted on the British Institute of Professional Photography’s (BIPP) Instagram page, played into “racist stereotypes” of black women.

Mark Sealy, director of Autograph ABP, said that at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement had drawn attention to race issues in various sectors, the decision to post the image was baffling. “Why would you even think about reproducing something that has got that edge to it?” he asked.

Benjamin Chesterton, a filmmaker who flagged the initial post, said it was typical in an industry criticised for treating black subjects and photographers with indifference. “It’s indicative of the photography world, because generally you’ll get very little pushback,” he said.

The image, which was accompanied by hashtags including #prisoner #africanos and #nativos, was deleted shortly after the Guardian contacted the BIPP – a qualifying body for professional photographers that describes itself as “the voice of the profession”.

The BIPP said it became aware of a complaint about an image posted on its Instagram account, and that pending an investigation into “the complaint and the issues raised by it, we have taken down the image”.

It followed on from allegations levelled at other British photographers, who have admitted not doing enough to improve diversity in the industry.

Last year, the photographer Martin Parr was criticised after publicly praising and writing an introduction for a republished book, titled London, by the Italian photographer Gian Butturini. Images of the capital in the book, which was first published in 1969, included a shot of a black woman, placed opposite a photograph of a gorilla in a cage at London Zoo.

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Protesters at Parr’s Only Human exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, in spring 2019, called on white photographers to “stop perpetuating racist tropes of black people”. The campaign was also critical of the gallery’s decision to use Gucci as a sponsor for the exhibition, after the fashion house had created a clothing line criticised for using blackface.

At the time, Parr apologised for offence caused and said he “should have picked up on the spread”, while acknowledging it was racist. On 11 June this year, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests around the world, the Martin Parr Foundation (MPF) tweeted that the arts had “a problem with diversity and inclusion”, and admitted “culpability” while pledging to do more to dismantle “wider structural inequalities” in the industry.

Speaking to the Guardian this week, Parr said he regretted his association with the book and that the MPF had prioritised gender equality and not focused on racial diversity. “We got so hooked on diversity of male, female and ensuring that we had reasonable splits on that, that we overlooked the BAME issue,” he said.

He added that the foundation was introducing bursaries for BAME photographers and would actively collect more work by BAME photographers.

Sealy said British photography’s approach to race reminded him of the feminism debate in the 1960s, when men didn’t “realise that there’s a big change afoot”. He said: “For me it’s a very simple sequence and people can’t crack it in their heads.”

This week the photography agency Magnum Photos announced it was hiring three Americans of colour, after criticism about the lack of diversity in its ranks. In the UK, Magnum has only one member who is non-white, the British-Burmese photographer, Chris Steele-Perkins. Its CEO, Caitlin Hughes, said it was important that the company became “a truly diverse collection of talented voices”. However, Sealy said that without a strategic plan, the announcement was “just rhetoric”.

Ingrid Pollard, the British-Guyanese artist, said black British photographers were often limited by racism. “As a black person you are bracketed, allowed to address one thing and that’s race,” she said. “Typically people look at my images and say “What is this?” They expect to see images of angry black people shouting, alienated. It’s incredibly limiting.”

The black London photographer Jennie Baptiste, whose work, like Pollard’s, is included in the Victoria and Albert collection, said her photographs on dancehall music and community were seen as meaningless because they were about “throwaway culture”. Her careers officer had told her she would never become a photographer.