Aright *rolls up sleeves* I've spent some time with this piece @bmluse is referring to in her thread:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/09/business/economy/covid-nyc-economy.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=undefined …
and ... wait for it, wait for it ... I have some thoughts (lol - I hear y'all collectively going "no shit, Kainaz, you with thoughts")
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I get the sense from Brittany's thread is the *thing* she can't put her finger on is a feeling that this doesn't represent me, my city or my lived experience. And she's right. It's unsettling because the conceit of the story is that this is about "US" - all New Yorkers.
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One thing I do whenever I read something like this is look at who made it. "We spent months documenting the changing city as its economy frayed and split during the pandemic." who is the "we" and what does the "we" look like.
pic.twitter.com/2tncI0YnZz
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In this case the folks making/shaping the story are not representative (not even close) of the diversity of NYC. That's not to say it couldn't have worked but a keener eye would have brought up issues like The Crime section. Where you see mostly Blk/brown folks w/ ZERO context.pic.twitter.com/CADpAL0Eh7
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Last I checked sitting on stoop wasn't a crime and yet ... That section alone should raise some major flags. But here's another MAJOR FLAG
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You don't hear from anybody in the photographs. A piece that want's to give folks a collective sense of what New York has been through with NO VOICES FROM ACTUAL NEW YORKERS. no names, no quotes, no context to the people we are meant to connect with.
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This is a classic "photo essay construction" which is taught in a lot of workshops and schools. I am a student of this style and I can now see it's horribly outdated.
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The idea is you write down a bunch of themes - resilience, crime, tourism - and make photographs that show folks working in this theme. It can be done well but it needs a lot of reporting and really great captions to give the people in the pictures fair representation.
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Otherwise what you get is just visual wallpaper - people's daily lives being shown as plot point for a larger argument. The individual gets lost. And once that happens the heartbeat of the story goes quiet.
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What you are left with is a series of photographs made by *one person* with *one point a view* strung together with some thin data points and an assertion that New York is "Ruptured."
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What this pandemic has made clear is that there are fewer cases where journalist can justify using the royal "we." And with an understanding of MSM's whiteness - it's okay to question the journalists that reach for this construction.
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all that's to say
@bmluse your instincts were right. trust them.1 vastaus 1 uudelleentwiittaus 27 tykkäystäNäytä tämä ketju -
One final thought - When I think of a city that is “ruptured” I think of all the polices that were in play and the *people* behind those policies. There are no images of the folks that wield the power - the ones responsible for the “rupture.”
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• reporting on visual journalism/ethics • SF/London/Ohio/Bombay/DC • tips kainaz.amaria@protonmail.com; pitches visuals@vox.com