The Social Ethics of Photography

Jun 32023

archive : 2023

This June join renowned photographer & activist Eva Woolridge at Photoville to explore the necessity of accountability and its regard to dismantling exploitative photography. Broaden your understanding on identity and how it affects our ability to capture other cultures and movements authentically.

Presenters: Eva Woolridge

Location: Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza

Number 1 on the official photoville map

Click to download this year's map

#Artist Talk

Presented by:

During a time when social and political movements are more accessible and important to document than ever before, how do we capture history without becoming a voyeur of a culture that is not our own? Why is it necessary to create impactful images born from our own experiences without exploiting others? This presentation shares Woolridge’s experience navigating and developing her artistic style while building awareness of our influence on how we view the communities we photograph. It will encourage us to reconsider the space we take up, our roles as photographers in contributing to activism, and how we influence the images we capture. Discover our social responsibility whether as a photojournalist capturing a social movement, or a hobbyist photographing cultures abroad, and rethink how we can photograph righteously.

Presenter Bios

Eva Woolridge

Eva Woolridge (she/her) is an award-winning Queer, Black & Chinese conceptual portrait photographer, public speaker, and social activist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her photo series explore the sexual, spiritual, and emotional nature of femininity. In her work she transcends surface-level labels of people of color by conveying strength, perseverance, vulnerability and vitality using strong lighting and composition.

In 2019 Woolridge became a recipient of The Leica Women in Foto Award for her series, “The Size of a Grapefruit,” a visual narrative based on Eva’s traumatic medical event which highlights the emotional stages from before, during and after her ovarian cyst surgery. Her objective is to address the accounts of her surgery, micro-aggressions and medical negligence Black women experience during medical emergencies, and the outdated information available in women’s reproductive health.

Woolridge continues to use visual narratives to convey a tone of a new, inclusive wave of feminine energy through her gaze as a queer, woman of color, while commenting on the social & cultural conditions of her communities.

Organizations

Leica Camera

For 50 years, Leica Galleries across the globe have existed as more than mere exhibition spaces. They are places for imagination, dialogue, and connection. Since the first Leica Gallery opened in Wetzlar in 1976, a global network of Leica Galleries has grown across continents. These galleries are united by the belief that images have the power to move people and change perspectives. The Leica Galleries celebrate the art of seeing and the power of photography. They have been bringing cultures, generations, and stories together, spanning borders, for half a century—reinforcing the idea that true photography is timeless and that seeing is still a universal language.