American Photography

Joseph Rodriguez. Mexican Migrant Project. Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, 1996.
"Many women are left at home in Mexico as their men go north across the border to look for work... Sometimes families do not see each other for years at a time."

Albert Chong. Addressing the Chinese Jamaican Business Community, 1992.

Chester Higgins, Jr. Memorial to African ancestors who perished in Atlantic Ocean during transfer from Africa to American enslavement, 1990.

Given the treatment of members of these groups in the past (and present), the stakes are always high when it comes to photographic representation. Where stereotypes are at play, any picture can create a positive image or reinforce a negative one. The stakes are increased when the photographer is white, the subject a person of color, and the audience largely white — and more often than not, that has been the case.

Someone who belongs to a group may have greater personal experience and knowledge of its ways and may elicit a more trusting, open response. Social proximity can lead to a physical and psychological closeness made evident in the photographs. But insider status is no guarantee of pictorial success. The results, as always, depend on the individual photographer and the elements of the specific situation.

Partly as a result of ethnic pride movements and a greater concern with the ethical and political issues surrounding the use of photographs, a new wave of photographic work is now being done by members of different ethnic and racial groups, with a full consciousness of what it means to participate in self-representation. Some of the work is photojournalism, intended for publication in newspapers, magazines, and books. Some is art, intended more for presentation in galleries and museums. In either case, the photographers show a heightened awareness of the importance of controlling one's own image and the images that represent one's group.