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In Practice: Resources for Photographers on Assignment

Who has the power to decide which photographers get particular resources and opportunities? What are the ethical dilemmas around commissions and assignments? We highlight a few industry resources that provide practical advice for photographers who are trying to navigate the territory between their own practice and the media industry at large.
Michael, Michael at home, Portland, Oregon, USA, May, 2015 © Bieke Depoorter . Magnum Photos

The Photo Bill of Rights Toolkits

The Photo Bill of Rights is authored by a group of individuals from grassroots organizations working toward dismantling harmful practices in the visual journalism and editorial media industry: the Authority Collective, Color Positive, Diversify Photo, The Everyday Projects, Juntos, the National Press Photographers Association, Natives Photograph, & Women Photograph
 
Their toolkits offer context, resources, and best practices for lens-based workers and hiring bodies to successfully implement action steps. These toolkits, which are living documents that will change and expand over time, aim to provide the materials necessary for empowering all individuals in the visual journalism and editorial media industries to take action and push for positive change. These are tools for a multitude of disciplines, and not everything in this toolkit will fit the needs of every discipline of lens-based workers. 

Diversify.Photo

Diversify Photo is a community of BIPOC and non-western photographers, editors, and visual producers working to break with the predominantly colonial and patriarchal eye through which history and the mass media has seen and recorded the images of our time. Their international online database is used by editors at major media outlets seeking to diversify their rosters of visual storytellers. They also create networking, exhibiting, speaking, community-building, and resource-sharing opportunities for members.

Authority Collective

The Authority Collective is a group of more than 200 womxn, non-binary and gender expansive people of color working in the photography, film and VR/AR industries. Their mission is to empower marginalized artists with resources and community, and to take action against systemic and individual abuses in the world of lens-based editorial, documentary and commercial visual work.

The Photographer’s Guide to Inclusive Photography

In collaboration with PhotoShelter, Authority Collective produced a guide to promote more thoughtful, conscientious photographic practices.  It's a collection of first-hand accounts, insights and learned lessons from industry leaders such as Tara PixleyLaylah Amatullah BarraynHannah Reyes MoralesTailyr IrvineDanielle VillasanaMengwen Cao and Jovelle Tamayo

The Photography Ethics Podcast

The Photography Ethics Centre is dedicated to promoting ethical literacy across the photography industry. They do this by offering a wide range of educational opportunities in photography ethics, including workshops, events, online courses, and free multimedia content. In a series of 12 episodes, the podcast explores what ethics mean in practice with accomplished photographers in the industry.

Discover more in curated theme On Assignment

Archive of Public Protests © Rafal Milach / Magnum Photos.

Are you curious to learn more about how to navigate the territory between your own practice and the media industry at large? Get an overview of all talks and online courses or catch up on the events and conversations you might have missed.

Open for Business - Magnum Photographers on Commission has been developed in collaboration with Magnum Photos Paris and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. It is curated by Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, and Mirjam Kooiman, curator of Foam.

Foam is supported by de VriendenLoterij, Foam Members, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, the VandenEnde Foundation and the City of Amsterdam.

In 2022 Foam receives additional support from the Mondriaan Fund and receives a contribution through the Mondriaan Fund from the Ministerie van OCW.


In Practice - Article - Foam: All about photography We highlight a few industry resources that provide practical advice for photographers who are trying [...]
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In Practice: Resources for Photographers