Diverse Voices in the Media

Sep 252016

archive : 2016

Myriam Abdelaziz

With this panel discussion, we aim to provide the audience with a better understanding of how and why the lack of diverse voices in the media leads to “outsiders” being tasked with documenting communities other than their own.

Presenters: Myriam Abdelaziz Rich Blint Laurel Golio Ruddy Roye

Moderators: Michael Wichita

Location: Brooklyn Bridge Park – Water Street

Presented by:

With this panel discussion, we aim to provide the audience with a better understanding of how and why the lack of diverse voices in the media leads to “outsiders” being tasked with documenting communities other than their own. Should a particular person from a particular community always be tasked with documenting their community? Does that lead to better representation? Does it lead to typecasting? What happens when an outsider documents a minority community? How does that affect public perception? How does that affect that community’s self-perception? What happens if the media only presents a stereotypical or negative perspective about a particular community, gender, religion, sexuality, etcetera?

Presenter Bios

Myriam Abdelaziz

Myriam Abdelaziz is a French-American photographer born in Cairo, Egypt. Her career started in corporate marketing seven years before she decided to change gears and pursue a profession in photography, her lifetime passion. Abdelaziz graduated from the International Center of Photography in 2006 and has been based in New York City ever since. In 2011, she joined the female Middle Eastern photo collective, ‘RAWIYA’ (‘She who tells a story’). Abdelaziz’s work tells the stories of its participants. Her inquiry into the tales of people takes her around the globe searching for narratives that overcome physical and cultural barriers and often reveal what we have in common: glimpses of solitude, hope, insecurity, dignity.
Rich Blint

Rich Blint is the 2016-2017 Scholar-in-Residence in the MFA Program in Performance + Performance Studies in the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute. He is co-editor (with Douglas Field) of a special issue of African American Review on James Baldwin (Winter 2013); contributing editor of The James Baldwin Review; and curator and co-curator, respectively, of the exhibitions The First Sweet Music (2014) and Bigger Than Shadows (2012, with Ian Cofre). Professor Blint is presently at work on his book project, Trembling on the Edge of Confession: James Baldwin and National Innocence in Modern American Culture. He earned his Ph.D. in American Studies at New York University, and has held faculty, research, and administrative appointments at Columbia University, Barnard College, Hunter College, and the Murphy Institute at the Graduate and University Center, CUNY.
Laurel Golio

Laurel Golio, a photographer and visual anthropologist based in New York, was chosen for PDN’s 30 2018: New and Emerging Photographer to Watch. The co-founder of “We Are the Youth”, a photojournalism project that shares the stories of LGBTQ+ youth in the U.S., Golio has shot for Bloomberg Businessweek, The Cut, The Fader, Champion, The North Face, Powerbar, Red Bull and other publications and clients. Golio’s work was part of ICP’s “Perpetual Revolution” exhibition show and been exhibited in shows around the U.S.
Ruddy Roye

Ruddy Roye is a Cleveland-based documentary photographer known for his coverage of race relations in America and the diaspora at large. He has over fifteen years of experience and specializes in editorial and environmental portraiture as well as photojournalism.

Moderator Bios

Michael Wichita

Organizations

United Photo Industries (UPI)

United Photo Industries (UPI) is a New York based nonprofit organization that works to promote a wider understanding of, and increased access to, the art of photography.

Since its founding in 2011, UPI has rapidly solidified its position in the public art landscape by continuing to showcase thought-provoking, challenging, and exceptional photography from across the globe. In its first seven years, UPI has presented the work of more than 2,500 visual artists in gallery exhibitions and public art installations worldwide.

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