I was contacted a while back by the ED of an arts organization. She had a question about marketing materials. This is not my forte and I told her as much. She said that didn’t matter, the real issue was about which photos would “convince funders and donors.”
Me: Could you be more specific? Convince them of what?
ED: I’m just trying to figure out if funders would prefer to see more African-American or Hispanic kids in the pictures.
Me (looking askance at my phone): I think you should use photos that represent your students. Doing student-y kinds of things. You know, engaged in doing their art. Don’t base your photo selection on ethnicity.
ED: Oh no, I think the funders want to see that we serve those kinds of kids.
Me (repeating in my head, “those kinds of kids”): Do you?
ED: (pauses) No, not really. We might have one black kid next semester. We have a lot of Asian kids but they’re not low income.
Me (feeling angry/scared to say this, and remembering my commitment to integrity): First of all, where would you get photos of African-American and Latino kids if you don’t have any as students – and secondly, why would you consider being disingenuous like that? (I neglect to take on her Asian kid comment.)
ED: Oh, everyone does that. Funders want to see it. There are plenty of photos online.
Me: That you would buy? (My head is starting to hurt a little.)
ED: No, we can just take them off other websites.
Me: Ok, I don’t really think that I can be of any help here. I don’t think you can ‘take photos from other websites’ and pass them off as students you don’t actually have.
ED: But what about what the funders want? They’re always going on about diversity. And you know we don’t have much of that in Boulder.
Me: But – you aren’t really considering showing students that aren’t yours…? (I think she is considering exactly this)
ED: (pauses, hopefully to reconsider) Well, thanks for your time.
Me: (thinking, what just happened here?)
The conversation pretty much ended right there. She tried to convince me again that this
is what organizations have to do in order to appeal to donors and funders (even though she called me for input). I gave up attempting to convince her of anything, including that she might want to take a look at her own racism. A few months later, I cringed to see the organization’s brochure that included a group of diverse children from somewhere other than Boulder. It was likely from stockphoto.com or another such site. I haven’t asked because we haven’t been in contact since. And that’s just fine with me.
Kathy,
Bravo and a big stamp of Integrity. As a photographer and an artist, I resonate with this.
Mostly from the stealing aspect and also from the race/honesty side. So many of my photos
have been “lifted” by people, many I suspect with the same mission as this person you mention.
It hurts me, the arts, the collective spirit of creation and, it hurts her.
e j carr
Thanks for your thoughts, EJ. This person didn’t think she was stealing, but that is, in fact, exactly what was going on. I think that crediting photos is the only way to go, along with – of course – using those that truly represent the organization. I respect you and your work so much!
K