Give us Features, not Flowers by Helene Jelenc and Sandra Potisek

Examining gender bias in the photography industry and digital landscape

by Helene Jelenc and Sandra Potisek

Women have contributed to the history of photography as much as any man, but many people probably struggle to name a few.

Julia Margaret Cameron (née Pattle; 1815-1879) started her photographic career at the age of 48. She was a British photographer known for her portraits of famous Victorian men (such as Charles Darwin). Doris Ulmann (1882-1934) photographed daily life in rural southern Appalachia, capturing workers, musicians, and artists. Or how about Florestine Perrault Collins (1895-1988), who captured realistic images around gender and race in New Orleans in a point to fight against stereotypes of Black women.

All of these women are incredibly talented and contributed to the history and development of photography, but they are unfortunately not included in most top photography lists or in museums. That is because women are rarely professionally featured in those spaces.

Women photographers are discriminated against in the workplace, are passed over for big jobs or brand ambassadorships, and are completely underrepresented in the industry. On top of that, women photographers earn 40% less on average, than their male counterparts.

Many of these statistics are repeated at length, year after year, with little change.

As photographers ourselves, we noticed a deafening silence when it came to women being represented in digital spaces such as camera brand social media accounts or being awarded brand ambassadorships. All of these opportunities help boost individuals’ careers, so where are the women? Why does it feel like only men are testing out the latest gear on YouTube or being featured more often on Instagram feeds? This led us to dig into the topic of the digital representation of women as professional photographers. Do the numbers match reality? How do they affect women’s economic opportunities?

Discrimination in the Workplace

Women are no stranger to discrimination in the workplace, but it is safe to say that some industries are worse than others. Through our research we encountered many statistics that show a glaring issue of gender-based discrimination.

- Associated Press found that 86% of their photo staff are men.

- Reuters’ photographers are 80% men.

- When looking at the photo bylines by gender, women are represented between 6-23% of the time, depending on the paper.

- Over the past 60 years, only eight women have received the Pulitzer for feature photography, and six for breaking news photography.

- Since 1955, the World Press Photography of the Year has gone to only four women.

Aside from getting jobs or awards, women photographers are also not featured in museums.

A study from 2017 (Muñoz-Muñoz and GonzalezMoreno) looked at the representation of women photographers at top museums in the world. The worst performance was by Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg which had 63 artists and 98% of them were men.

In the UK, Tate Modern had a total of 31 artists being shown in which 94% were men, and only 6% women.

The best museum, with regards to representation, was KIASMA in Helsinki – out of 163 artists shown, 36% were women and 64% men.

These unjust statistics are not a reflection of reality. According to the US Bureau of Labor in 2021, there were 192,000 photographers employed and 49.3% of them were women. Almost half of the employed photographers in the US are women, yet they are less likely to be recognised, featured, or celebrated as much as men – in spite of making up 50% of the industry. And these opportunities also quickly disappear if you are not white.

The State of News Photography report from 2018 shares that more than half of participants of their study were white, 80% men, and only 1% of respondents classified as Black. Photographers that identify as non-white were much more likely to cite physical risk at work and 69% of women reported discrimination in the workplace.

Nearly half of professional photographers are women, yet we are passed over for jobs, paid less, not given professional awards for our achievements, and have to deal with sexism on the job.

Underrepresented on the Timeline

Unfortunately, this reality is further perpetuated in digital spaces. What might appear to be an equal playing field is still very skewed in its representation. For our research we decided to examine two digital spaces in which well-known camera brands could easily provide professional opportunities for everyone; brand ambassadorships and on their Instagram feeds.

Brand Ambassadors

Year after year, we hear the same thing that “next time, brands will do better” , but we know it isn’t true. Every single year, articles are published stating that another camera brand announced their new ambassadors, and guess what? They are predominantly men. Our research examined the gender representation for ambassador programs for Canon, Nikon, Sony Alpha, and Fuji Film in the US and in Europe.

Nikon’s numbers are a bit better than others, but this may also be due to the small size of their program. In the US, there are 15 women out of 34 ambassadors, and in Europe, 7 out of 22 are women.

In 2021, Canon US nominated 12 women photographers out of 38 ambassadors, and this year it is just 14 out of 36. It is even worse for Canon Europe which has 109 ambassadors and only 14 are women.

Sony Alpha US has 141 ambassadors and only 42 are women while the Europe ambassador program has 95 members and only 9 are women.

Fuji Film US has 28 ambassadors in their program, only 9 are women. In their European ambassadorship, there are 256 members and only 29 are women.

The representation for POC within these ambassador programs was even lower than that of women. These statistics are important because they show the lack of opportunities for women and minorities when it comes to professional development and recognition.

On the IG Feed

After we collected statistics about representation in ambassador programs, we analysed major camera brands’ Instagram feeds. These accounts flourish on the platform since it was originally designed to showcase photography. The brands have massive reach and often update several times a day, leaving plenty of opportunities to showcase a diverse set of photographers.

Unfortunately, that is not what happens.

Instagram accounts of five of the leading camera brands–Nikon, Canon, Sony, FujiFilm, andGoPro were analysed for the number of times a woman photographer was featured in 2021. For example, if a carousel had 5 posts and 2 were from women photographers, 5 is added to the total, 2 is added to the number of features for women.

In the rare few cases where gender could not be determined by checking their social media profile or website, the feature wasn’t included in the count. To gather more data and see if any patterns existed, we examined all five brands’ US Instagram accounts, and in cases where European accounts didn’t exist, UK accounts were used.

As the images show below, women photographers are featured less than 50% of the time across accounts.

Canon USA featured women only 34% of the time and in the UK just 26%.

Nikon USA didn’t fare much better with women being featured 38% of the time and 39% in Europe.

GoPro had the worst results of any brand in spite of posing more than 6500 times in 2021. Women photographers were featured only 16% of the time in the US and 17% in the UK.

FujiFilm US featured women photographers 22% of the time and in the UK, 26% of the time.

SonyAlpha in the US featured women 36% of the time, but unfortunately that drops to17% in Europe.

In total, women photographers appeared in16-39% of the features, with Nikon taking the lead.

At the bottom is GoPro (16% GoPro USA, 17% GoPro UK).

If women are accounting for nearly half of paid photographers, why aren’t we being shared on huge platforms? Why isn’t our art being shown? Why are we primarily existing as the subject rather than the author?

How to Support Women Photographers

While the research is bleak, it comes as no surprise. Photography isn’t the only industry that lacks representation and if we want things to improve, then we must act. Supporting access to education for young women interested in photography is a great start to initiate change.

Digital skills, including photography, are skills that cannot only allow women to express themselves in creative ways, but can also bring economic benefits. This of course depends on the availability of opportunities for marginalised groups.

Therefore, we suggest the following solution. Hire women, especially women of colour, non-binary, and other marginalised voices. Include more women in your projects, campaigns, and pay them a fair and equitable wage.

- Black Women Photographers has a global directory of over 1000 black photographers to hire, or Native Agency which features professional photographers from underrepresented regions.

- Organisations like Hundred Heroine offer support for women in photography.

- She Sees is an organisation to support young women in film.

- Foto Feminas supports women photographers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

- Authority Collective is a group with more than 200 women, non-binary, and gender-expansive people of colour working in photography, film, and VR/AR.

Are you a photographer that is feeling underrepresented? We encourage you to apply for grants this year. Women Photograph and Black Women Photographers keep an ongoing list of grants and deadlines. Ethnovision also offers a range of financial grants to support photographers.

Enough gatekeeping. Enough misrepresentation. Let’s create a supportive, inclusive, and collaborative environment because there is enough room at the table for all to eat.

About Wallfower Studios

Helene Jelenc and Sandra Potisek are multi-passionate co-founders of Wallflower Studios, a creative content marketing agency based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. With their combined international background in research, digital marketing and content creation, they are helping emerging and established brands get found, grow and create impact, all while trying to connect and empower the next generation of female creatives. They also share a passion for travel and photography. Helene, an anthropologist with an SEO obsession, loves to document her travels, and so does Sandra, a social media native who takes it a step furtherand can’t help but to share her adventures on every possible platform. Her photography has received a nomination in Best Imagery for Traverse Creator Awards and got featured in ELLE Australia.