27/08/2020
A CHANGE OF COURSE
2020 has been a year of massive social upheaval, it has re-highlighted the structural bias, racial prejudice and favouritism that has been intentionally built into our society, both here at home in Australia and internationally in a visceral and confronting manner.
Lockdown has given me the time to step back from my day-to-day focus and realise some important things. And most importantly it has given me a choice.
I have unintentionally been a part of, and played into, an industry that has contributed to the whitewashing and marginalisation of woman, black indigenous people of colour as well as the LGBTQI+ community. While I honestly believe my intentions were for the best, I have always prided myself on celebrating what makes people unique, I also fell into the trap of pursuing what was easiest.
I also chose to hide key parts of myself in the thought that this would facilitate greater success. Passing for straight, hiding my identity as a bisexual, and being unable to celebrate that, has lead to an unconscious barrier to celebrating others as fully as I should through both my work and my photography, particularly my fellow members of the LGBTQI+ community.
For this exercise in white male privilege I humbly apologise, and I vow to do better.
To do so, a change in course, both personally and professionally in required. Words without action are worthless.
As such I will be restructuring the How & Why of how I operate as a photographer, down to the way I shoot, edit and create photographs of my subjects and for my clients.
Why am I doing this?
Itâs time to use my skills, experience and privilege to give more back. I have always prided my work on empowering my subject but its time to expand the group of people I devote that energy to, if my work does not represent true diversity everyone than it only serves to further erase the presence of others. I want to actively counteract the whitewashing that I have previously been a party to intentioned or not.
Promoting the diversity and importance of underrepresented groups through my work is important in my mind because we no longer live in a world where private and professional lives lie separate. It is necessary to use any and all platforms at our disposal to fight racism, inequality and injustice.
How do I plan to go about these changes?
Clearly this will be an ongoing process and may not be perfect to begin with, however in consultation with my clients and subjects I hope to continually improve my methods. How it will begin, however, is with greater consultation throughout the entire creative process, from pre-production through to post-production, a specific and considered approach to invoicing, with new and improved billing system, as well as trade-shoot opportunities, for LGBTQI+, BIPOC and small business clients.
Devoting more time to each shoot, and less focus on numbers or content for content sake. Changes to our Trade shoots, essentially, I will be ending all TFP for Cis White Folk, outside of my existing network, and focus on accessibility opportunities. Working with smaller teams for a more consistent high quality production.
And giving more. More focus, more equipment devoted to the shoot and more space. More space to be safe, more space to be celebrated for who you are without barrier or judgement.
When does this begin?
Now.
With the setup of my new studio / apartment I now have a private dedicate space available for clients free of exorbitant fees for low budget studio sets that are currently available, and with a series of new backdrops and lights on the way to expand our existing studio set up clients will soon have greater access than ever to the shoots that they want at the most affordable prices.
Finally, I would like to open this letter to comments and feedback. More ideas and perspectives are always welcome and necessary for the ongoing improvement of this process. My email and DMâs are always open.
Sincerely,
Benjamin OâDea
www.benjaminodea.com
[email protected]
