Editorial
Oscuro, casi negro Dark, almost black En esta revista que tiene usted en sus manos en estos momentos, todos los fotógrafos que aparecen son negros. La mayoría de los textos también están escritos por escritores o investigadores negros. Apenas somos unos pocos los colaboradores blancos. Es curioso definir las razas a partir de un color, cuando sabemos que realmente solo existe una raza (la humana) y miles de matices de colores en el Pantone de la piel humana. Nadie es absolutamente negro ni, mucho menos, absolutamente blanco. Sin embargo, el color parece importar demasiado y define, a simple vista, el estatus social, cultural y político de cada uno de nosotros. Y la fotografía ha colaborado activamente en esta catalogación simbólica que va cambiando y subvirtiéndose a sí misma poco a poco. Este número de EXIT está dedicado a la fotografía negra, a la fotografía realizada por fotógrafos, artistas, negros. De países, edades, intereses y estilos muy diferentes. Tal vez solo tengan en común que todos ellos son negros, o tal vez sería mejor decir que no son blancos, que su piel es de un color oscuro. Pero intentar simplificar todo en ese punto de color de la piel es absurdo, porque lo que realmente está en juego son cuestiones mucho más complejas como la inclusión, la diferencia, la estigmatización, la privacidad, el origen, la clase social, las costumbres, la capacidad económica y, sobre todas las cosas, los prejuicios. Es decir: juzgar a alguien por signos y aspectos externos antes de conocer nada sobre ellos. Prejuicios, construir estereotipos a partir de elementos superficiales. Tan superficiales como la piel, pero que marcan y definen las vidas de millones de personas en el mundo. Todas las imágenes y prácticamente todos los textos que llenan las páginas de esta revista parten de una matriz lo suficientemente oscura para no ser considerados blancos. EXIT es con este número una publicación de color oscuro, casi negro. Los y las autoras muestran y hablan de sus obras y del sentido de su fotografía. Han nacido en países distintos, la mayoría hijos de inmigrantes y ciudadanos de países cuya población es cada vez más mestiza, mezclada de colores, orígenes e historias. Algo que parece muy moderno, pero 4
EDITORIAL
All the photographers appearing this issue of the magazine are black. Most of the texts are written by black writers and researchers too. How strange it is to define people on the basis of colour when we know there is but one race (human) and thousands of different shades in the Pantone colour system that is human skin. No one is completely black or, far less so, completely white. And yet too much importance seems to be attached to colour. It automatically defines the social, cultural and political status of every single one of us. Photography has played an active part in this symbolic cataloguing, which changes and subverts itself little by little. This issue of EXIT is dedicated to black photography, to photographs taken by black photographers and artists encompassing a wide range of countries, age groups and interests. It may be that the only thing they have in common is that they are all black. Or perhaps it would be better to say that they are not white, that their skin is dark in colour. But to attempt to boil everything down to a question of skin colour is absurd because what is really at stake are far more complex issues such as inclusion, difference, stigmatisation, privacy, background, social class, customs, wealth and, above all, prejudice. In other words, what is involved here is the judging of people purely on account of external signs and traits, without anything being known about them. These prejudices and the creating of stereotypes on the basis of superficial characteristics, as superficial as skin colour, impact on and shape the lives of millions of people around the world. All the images and virtually all the texts that fill these pages hail from a source sufficiently dark for them not be considered white, making EXIT, for this issue at least, a dark, almost black publication. The featured artists show and discuss their work and the meaning behind their photography. They were born in different countries, most of them the children of immigrants and the citizens of countries whose populations are increasingly mixed-race, a fusion of colours, backgrounds and stories. Though this might seem a very modern phenomenon, it was, ultimately, the objective of Alexander the Great’s conquests more than 300 years before Christ. In ordering the mass deportation of people from Europe, Asia, India and all the territories he occupied, mostly by force, he aimed to conquer land by mixing traditions, colours, cultures and languages. In his view, that was the way the world was or ought to be: a single territory where different people were equals. Today, that world is becoming more of a reality, albeit as a result of destruction, emigration, pain and loss, a continuous and unstoppable transformation. These artists have their origins in Kenya, Mozambique, Jamaica and Angola, as do, perhaps, their parents,
