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Light And Dark: The Racial Biases That Remain In Photography
NPR Code Switch ^ | April 16, 2014 | Tell Me More Staff

Posted on 04/16/2014 9:44:01 PM PDT by KneelBeforeZod

A lot of [the design of film and motion technology] was conceived with the idea of the best representation of white people. And I don't mean to say that it was a deliberate and exclusionary practice, but [it was] much more of a willful obliviousness, if you will. So color film in its early stages pretty much developed around trying to measure the image against white skin. ...

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: photography
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To: KneelBeforeZod

The only bias revealed here is in the fact that somehow this article got published without presenting any facts whatsoever, while being written at a 2nd grade level.

5 minutes I’ll never get back.


41 posted on 04/17/2014 1:51:13 AM PDT by ReaganGeneration2
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To: Salamander

Obviously Jesse Jackson and Hank Aaron need to get on the case.


42 posted on 04/17/2014 1:54:58 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: KneelBeforeZod

43 posted on 04/17/2014 2:05:49 AM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: T-Bird45

The inventors of the camera obscura are *long* dead.


44 posted on 04/17/2014 2:11:49 AM PDT by Salamander (Agent Of Fortune)
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To: KneelBeforeZod

See, NPR is on to it...same reason we drive over black asphalt every day.

Kooks.


45 posted on 04/17/2014 3:11:08 AM PDT by jughandle ( "We have the right to debate and disagree with any administration!" -HRColl)
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To: KneelBeforeZod

Were black inventors prevented from developing film technology to favor advances beneficial to blacks? If not, why the wringing of hands by this writer?


46 posted on 04/17/2014 3:12:58 AM PDT by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: Leaning Right

Sure. And that is why that proud black ship, the Titanic, was sunk by that racist, white, iceberg.


47 posted on 04/17/2014 4:14:08 AM PDT by battlecry
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To: KneelBeforeZod

Its true. The dark skin just swallows up the light. You see the white faces no prob, but the black faces are just smears. The photographer will have to really work to get some contrast.

It sucks, but I think it is just one of those things you gotta accept. For many black people, incidents like this are a constant reminder of their ‘inferiority’.


48 posted on 04/17/2014 5:05:05 AM PDT by olepap (Your old Pappy)
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To: uncle fenders

It is hard to photograph black stuff.
We have a big black Maine Coon cat. Every photo of him looked like a cutout silhouette. One summer we had a load of dirt delivered to level a few spots in the lawn. The cat decided he liked rolling in this dry dusty dirt and he became gray colored. Photos of him after rolling in the dust were remarkably good and detailed. Two years after this, we bought a new camera. The new camera had a feature that allowed for photos in situations of same color. Mostly it was for taking pictures of snow where everything was white. It allowed us to photograph the cat when he was clean.


49 posted on 04/17/2014 5:07:13 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Freedom isn't free; nor is it easy. END ALL TOTALITARIAN ACTIVITY NOW.)
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To: KneelBeforeZod

This has to be one of the most stupid articles I have ever read. (My bad for even clicking on it, since I saw right away that it was NPR). Todays cameras often get skin color wrong, from ANY skin. It can be lighting, shadowing, haze, and any number of reasons. That’s why any number of free photo processing software tools have color correction. If someone doesn’t like it, they can FIX IT. Crying and whining about racist cameras is unbecomming.


50 posted on 04/17/2014 5:23:48 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (for)
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To: KneelBeforeZod

stupid self serving article


51 posted on 04/17/2014 6:00:33 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: KneelBeforeZod

52 posted on 04/17/2014 6:09:54 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: KneelBeforeZod


Lynn-Dah-The-Dog disagrees with this article! :-)
53 posted on 04/17/2014 6:27:42 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: KneelBeforeZod

Everything in the modern world is “racist” because when whites created it, they did so for themselves.

Those who object to the way it turned out, in photography, or otherwise, are perfectly free to create their own “non-racist” technologies. If they are better, they will win out in the market place.

Go for it.


54 posted on 04/17/2014 6:52:55 AM PDT by chesley
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