Diversity in Journalism
May 15, 2017
Images that Offer Fresh Takes on Minority Communities
A selection of work by photographers seeking to move beyond stereotypical depictions of communities of color
Feyisola Oduyebo, 17, gets her make-up done by her friends while getting ready for her senior prom in Brooklyn, New York
The best visual journalism displays the human condition as honestly and thoroughly as possible. The photographers highlighted in these pages give us more than overly simplistic depictions of violence, devastation, and criminality too often attached to minority populations the world over. From the images of Muslim women in Michigan and male church members in Arkansas praying to high school band members warming up before a football game and the playful exuberance of skateboarders on Atlanta city streets, these photographs depict lives much larger than the snapshots of war and disaster we see most often associated with black and brown people. This work reaches toward that goal of depicting holistic lives, evading stereotypes, and gesturing toward the possibility of shared humanity.
—Tara Pixley
Dustin Chambers
A group of young men skate on the steps of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building in Atlanta, Georgia
A man named J.R. checks the fit of his bee-keeping suit. J.R. takes care of bees and a community garden in Atlanta, Georgia
Brittany Greeson
Ms. Ann at the Shake Rag salon in Bowling Green, Kentucky
Friends dance at a school prom in Flint, Michigan
Mark Lumpkins rests at the Shaw Skate Park in Washington, D.C.
Congregation members pray at Michigan’s Az-Zahra Islamic Center
Zun Lee
Terence Mason in his old Ferguson, Missouri neighborhood in December 2014
More from Zun Lee: “Capturing Quiet Acts of Resistance: Documenting the lives of black fathers in America, from Brooklyn to Ferguson,” from the Summer 2015 issue of Nieman Reports
Cassandra Giraldo
In the town of Ollantaytambo in Peru’s Sacred Valley, residents dress in traditional Andean garb in honor of a carnival in February
A detail of Arielle, 14, and her septum piercing as she hangs out with her friends after school in Brooklyn, New York
Aaron Turner
West Memphis (Ark.) Sr. High School Band members warm up before a Friday night football game
Male members at a Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Turrell, Arkansas join hands in prayer