By Manasi Nene
Most “serious” photographs we see in the news are of men. By men. For men. The women are relegated to Page 3, and we rarely ever question this. What’s the point?
Daniella Zalcman had enough of it though. As a war photographer with about 10 years’ experience, she was tired of editors saying they would hire more women if they could, with women having to brave harassment in the field because nobody believed they could be serious, of her news cycles being bombarded with very “male” images. So she decided to change it.
Zalcman is the founder of Women Photograph, a website that highlights women photojournalists and photographers, and has also created a database of these women — what languages they speak, what sort of assignments they’ve had, their experience in conflict zones and hostile environments. This database is also available to editors and other reporters, who are planning assignments and need photographers.
Diversity, to Zalcman, is important because of access, comfort and visibility — but mostly, because “it’s good journalism”. In an interview with Wired, she talks about the need for more sensitive reporting, for better coverage of issues faced by non-white, non-male individuals, and the impact of having a more diverse group of reporters and photographers. At the heart of this is her concept of the ever-expanding “empathy gap”.
Starting out with a Google Sheet sent to 20 of her friends, her database expanded to 200 people, and now the database on the website records about 400 women from 67 countries. A casual stroll through the website will show Zalcman’s deep commitment to showing stories from all over the world, including India, Bangladesh and Nepal, and countries all over the Middle East and South America. These aren’t just photos on a website – they’re testament to the talent of all the women featured, and the stories they’re bold enough to document. The website wasn’t built to highlight women, it was built to highlight the stories we can tell.