Women Photograph
Women Photograph The ‘Women Photograph’ initiative launched in early 2017 to elevate the voices of women and non-binary visual journalists. Its founder, Daniella Zalcman, got so frustrated being told by photo editors, ‘I would hire more women if I knew where to look,’ that she decided to make a list so that the next time the conversation happened she’d be able to say, ‘here, I made this for you.’ We contacted Daniella to look back at the initiative’s achievements over the first two years and its future plans. Photojournalism is a hugely male-dominated world and, although a large proportion of students are female, only a small proportion of photojournalists in the field are women. Daniella explains why this matters; ‘There is so much value in having a multitude of perspectives – a single view cannot do justice to the people who let you into their lives. If newspaper front pages are 85-90% shot by men, we are looking at the world through a predominantly male gaze. Conflict, politics, entertainment, sports are being represented through the way men see these issues. It is deeply dangerous.’ Women Photograph remains, first and foremost, a database that now includes over 900 independent women documentary photographers based in more than 100 countries around the world. The photographers cover breaking news, conflict, food, entertainment, sports - every aspect of documentary photography and photojournalism. The website showcases the work of its members and the private database forms an essential hiring resource, providing all the information an editor could possibly want. Any independent photographer with more than 5 years of professional experience can apply to join the database by reaching out to hello@womenphotograph.com. Women Photograph is spending 2019 particularly focused on expanding the database in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. ‘Photo editors and photographers need to be mindful that if we want to tell the stories of diverse people around the world then we, as storytellers, need to be diverse or we are not going to understand, and we are not going to report with nuance.’ From its origins as a simple list, Women Photograph has expanded to include a grant programme, mentorship programme, annual workshop, travel fund, and a data collection team. ‘The best part is the huge community of people who are working really hard to support each other. It has been remarkable, astonishing, and wonderful to see just how supportive everyone has been.’ 32
