The photography community stands at a crossroads. Many photographers resist chaotic challenges, ranging from stagnant media platforms to a lack of jobs to the looming threat of AI. In such an environment, your passion and creativity will take a back seat when you do not know who to turn to. We understand your plight, and so does WePresent, a new creative platform from WeTransfer that is here to give voice to the photography community.
Interestingly, WeTransfer’s WePresent has unveiled a new series that is an excellent guide for the photography community: New Rules. Divided into four chapters, New Rules discusses various facets of photography, which are as important as releasing the shutter at the right moment. Let us give you a glimpse at the experiences, suggestions, and advice of various eminent photographers featured in the series.
Chapter 1: Taking Risks
WeTransfer’s exhaustive and informative series begins with the most fundamental rule in photography: take risks. Through the works and experiences of two distinct photographers, Rhiannon Adam, and Quil Lemons, the series sheds light on how they overcame their fears to reach the ladder of success.
“I quantify whether a risk is worth taking by whether I think it will create any positive change.”
Rhiannon Adam
Rhiannon Adam is among the eight creatives selected for the first civilian lunar orbital mission, dearMoon. In her photographic practice, Adams writes about the use of Polaroid and how the analog process helped her to “relinquish an element of control through its materiality.” It was the “element of risk” that sustained her during her intense oeuvre. After her selection for SpaceX’s program, Adam became aware of the “lack of anonymity” and its impact on her projects. Despite the epiphany, Adam is carrying on. She notes that photographing in space is an uncharted territory with risks. Today, she feels “responsible for pushing the medium forward a little bit further.”
In contrast, photographer Quil Lemons hopes to shatter the stereotype and offer an intimate perspective on Black masculinity, gender, and sexual orientation. Lemons, the youngest person to photograph Vanity Fair’s cover, shares the reality of ‘risk-taking.’ As a queer Black person, Lemons created Quiladelphia, a series that was a “healing” journey for him. He understood that this documentation came with perils, but he gave himself more dignity while granting the series time to reverberate within the culture. “The beauty of taking risks is that you never really know how it will play out,” he wrote in the series.
“Taking risks is like placing a mirror in front of myself. I have to think about what I want from all of this.”
Quil Lemons
Chapter 2: Radical Storytelling
Unlike the usual form of visual narratives, radical storytelling hopes to dismantle conventional notions while ensuring a platform for the marginalized. It means accepting vulnerability and discovering encouraging ways to reshape the power dynamics seen in photography.
To highlight these points, WeTransfer’s New Rules showcased the works of three excellent photographers, bridging the gap between the author and the subject while compelling audiences to think critically about issues that plague the world. For instance, photographer Sheida Soleimani highlights the pain of the exile of her parents from Iran while urging viewers to notice “the cultural blindspot.” Through her experimental collages, the maximalist, “playful” images, Soleimani hopes to get the attention of the masses and academics. “I want to act like I’m rewarding them with something beautiful or hot, and then, before they know it, they’re learning about something,” she said.
“People in the art world have such an expectation of how things should look or how direct things should be, and I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in playfulness.”
Sheida Soleimani
On the other hand, Beruit-based photographer Myriam Boulos’ practice is about the political and social realities following the 2019 revolution. In her series, What’s Ours, Bolous requested Arab women (anyone who identifies as a woman) to send her an email about their sexual fantasies. Little did she know that this appeal would lead to cyberbullying, but Boulos persevered. Today, she hopes to challenge and resist the colonial and patriarchal ways of seeing while owning “our desires” and taking “back what belongs to us.”
Of the two, Jan Hoek took the most distinct approach to his photography. Uncomfortable with the “toxic power dynamic” of the medium, Hoek experimented with various modes of collaboration. For instance, the sitter would “decide exactly how they wanted to be photographed” and the creation of co-authorship. But when that did not feel enough, Hoek gave “the model complete control of the image authorship, full credit and financial remuneration.”
“Photography became a method to connect and unite all these different people in one visual universe.”
Jan Hoek
With a remarkable strategy, the three photographers in WeTransfer’s New Rules tested the boundaries of the known, thus radicalizing the ways stories are told today.
Chapter 3: Building Community
Photographers are well aware of the competition in the community. Individuals shy away from sharing resources, gatekeeping from newcomers, and a general lack of dissemination of information or guidance. In such a situation, one finds themselves incredibly alone and confused.
“We are all so ambitious. There’s a way for us to all succeed alongside each other.”
Justin J Wee
As a series, WeTransfer’s New Rules understood these challenges and reached out to three exciting clubs and collectives that are countering this narrative in the most meaningful way.
Sasha Arutyunova’s Nomadique community (founded with her friends), Jamal Nxedlana and Lex Trickett’s Bubblegum Club, as well as Janina Sabaliauskaitė and Phyllis Christopher’s The NewBridge Project, are some excellent examples of fostering a healthy community. Through workshops, exhibitions, talks, magazines, and more, each collective is working towards ensuring that photographers meet each other and have meaningful conversations. The communities have been built on the pillars of mutual trust and respect, allowing its members to share resources, offer support, get visibility and access, and become independent, empowered artists.
“Community organizing has empowered me to use my energy to create change and resist.”
Janina Sabaliauskaitė
Chapter 4: Creative Autonomy
The term may seem new, but it has been around for a while. Through the interviews and write-ups by three photographers, Campbell Addy, Jess T. Dugan, and Cait Oppermann, WeTransfer’s New Rules tells what creative autonomy stands for in a highly complex world.
“Wemight have made it look easy, but it was because we really, really wanted it.”
Campbell Addy
Addy, who founded Niijournal, used his biannual publication as a platform to “educate, not irritate,” upcoming Black creatives. His magazine hopes to free photographers from the clutches of gatekeeping while also representing the unseen works of POC. After years of working in the industry, Addy boldly states what the term creative autonomy means for him today: “I used to think creative autonomy was about calling the shots, but I’m much more interested in working together.”
But Dugan, whose works are now in the permanent collections of over 60 museums, notes that it’s about liberation. During their career, they observed that “the amazing and terrifying thing about being an artist is that you can set your career path.” However, they note that creative autonomy allows them to “make the work I want—work that’s coming from my heart and soul.” But sometimes, one has to refuse any opportunity, which can divert one “from your actual goal.”
“You can’t do great work without accountability!”
Cait Oppermann
For Oppermann, it all boiled down to letting her agent go. She notes how having a middle person “gradually eroded my autonomy and dulled my intuitive sense of what was right for me.” Today, she owns FLOWERS, a production company and a studio offering a direct photography approach. The freedom of direct communication has allowed her to “work together more expansively, retaining a high standard of work without compromise.”
If you wish to read the entire series, please visit WeTransfer’s website.