“Hailing from Australia, Ari Wegner studied film at the Victorian College of the Arts, later working as cinematographer on short films and commercials.
She then shot the 2016 thriller drama series The Kettering Incident, receiving an AACTA Awards nomination for Best Cinematography in Television. The same year, she shot William Oldroyd’s debut film Lady Macbeth, based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. She earned the British Independent Film Award for Best Cinematography….”
Commentary
Congratulations to Ari Wegner ACS ASC for attaining membership of the American Society of Cinematographers aka ASC!
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
“The Economist’s 1843 magazine invites black photographers based in the UK to apply for its one-year mentorship programme designed to help create a pipeline for black talent in photography. 1843 magazine is part of The Economist, publishing long reads and narrative journalism, and emphasises visual storytelling in all its pieces.
Spearheaded by 1843’s picture and luxury editor, Melanie Grant, the programme will run in 2023. The chosen mentee will be given one-on-one mentoring by the art and design team at 1843 and The Economist over the course of a year. This will include reviewing their portfolio, helping develop ideas and visual narratives, pitching and completing assignments, editing and post-production. The successful candidate will be asked to do at least one published assignment for 1843 magazine.
The programme is open to professional photographers, with some experience in reportage or lifestyle photography, who are ambitious to create beautiful and important work. The candidate will be based in the UK, and will be encouraged to work closely with the in-house team.
This programme is supported by The Association of Photographers, Magnum and Panos Pictures. In addition to these institutions, a group of working photographers will also support and guide the mentee, and share their experiences….
1843 magazine publishes long-form narrative journalism as part of The Economist….
The deadline to submit applications is midnight on Monday, February 20th, 2023.”
Commentary
This looks like an excellent initiative from The Association of Photographers (I am a former member), The Economist and 1843 magazine as well as their partners Magnum Photos and Panos Pictures.
There’s a need for many such affirmative action projects for all the groups of people who’ve been actively discriminated against and excluded from the right to tell stories through photography, moviemaking and other such effective forms of visual storytelling for publication in the mainstream and so-called alternative or independent media.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
“Championing diversity without dismantling institutional racism is like putting up a ‘safe to dive’ sign without doing any work to deepen the pool, writes Katrina Irawati Graham.
My first development with a funding body, some years ago, was run by two white men. I was the only person of colour in the room and the only female. My project was an intimate Indonesian ghost story set in West Java. The characters were entirely Indonesian with the exception of the protagonist’s white husband whose death is the inciting incident. In the two-on-one feedback session, the friendly script gurus told me that when I killed the white man, I blinded the audience. I was flabbergasted….”
Commentary
This is an excellent and insightful article about an all too common problem in Australia’s elderly white man-dominated screen industries.
Racism is just one diversity that has anything but equity in our film and television and other screen-based sectors and it’s well past time that the rich WASPs wake up, smell the coffee, grow up and allow the rest of us to take our rightful places and tell fresh, new stories in our own ways.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Diversity Arts Australia – Dear White Screen Industry… – Published on February 8, 2021, but just as relevant today in 2023.
“”UPDATED with IMDb statememt: In a major victory for SAG-AFTRA and GLAAD, IMDb has initiated a new policy that will allow industry professionals to remove their dates of birth, birth names and other demographic information from its IMDb and IMDbPro sites.
SAG-AFTRA long had maintained that publishing actors’ ages without their permission fuels ageism, while GLAAD has argued that publishing transgender persons’ birth names without permission is an invasion of privacy that can put them at risk of discrimination.
IMDb said is a statement today: “As part of the active and ongoing consultation IMDbPro established with organizations specializing in anti-bias, bullying prevention, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, IMDbPro collaborated with these thought leaders to develop a series of significant product and policy updates to meet the unique needs of their communities and entertainment fans.””
Commentary
Yet again I for intersex people are left out of the reporting and one assumes also the activism for this otherwise welcome change of policy at IMDb and IMDBPro, a bizarre omission given that intersex people constitute between 2% to 5% of the human population and are more likely to reject their sex designation at birth and thus often their birth-name than non-intersex aka endosex people.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
IMDb – IMDb Announces Significant Policy and Product Updates That Empower Entertainment Professionals to Showcase Themselves to Entertainment Industry Decision-Makers – PDF
“The goal of this report is to reveal the status of inclusion and representation in scripted television in the U.S., and how it has evolved over the past 12 years. Entertainment media, like scripted television, profoundly shapes the minds of young people as well as social narratives. It influences how we perceive the world, how we see ourselves holding place in society, what we should value, what we should respect, what careers we may pursue, who gets to be the hero, and more.
Analyzing and measuring inclusion and representation in entertainment media contributes to eliminating unconscious bias that can reinforce negative behavior, prejudice, colorism, body shame, low self-esteem, and other harmful stereotypes. We hope this report inspires the creation of more equitable media content.”
Commentary
This report was released in November 2022 but it’s still relevant.
At this time of year, the reports on diversity, equality, equity, inclusion and representation in the media begin appearing and we’ll be adding them here when we can.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Oops, they’ve done it again: GLAAD launches its 2022 Studio Responsibility Index report and excludes I for intersex people yet again.
Cover, GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index 2022.
Golly, it’s as if intersex people don’t even exist despite being 2 to 5% of the human population and are the most excluded, most ignored, most discriminated against, most medically persecuted people in all of LGBTQIA+ and SOGIESC.
Has GLAAD ever heard of “if she can’t see it, she can’t be it”?”
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
All topics written about within the collection of articles, listed below, are well worth reading but in the light of the Australian Cinematographers Society 2022 survey and report, ‘A Wider Lens: Australian Camera Workforce Development and Diversity Report’, we’re especially interested in the BSC’s special report article on Gender and Diversity titled ‘Levelling The Playing Field’ and written by up and coming cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt.
“The world of cinematography and the working lives of DPs have changed and evolved in many ways since we launched British Cinematographer Magazine in 2002.
In our special 100th edition, and also in issue 101, we looked at some of the major trends to have emerged over the last 18 years. Part one looks at how the UK has become a leading destination for premium cinema and high-end TV production, developments in camera and lighting technologies, the rise of DI colour grading and the remarkable renaissance of celluloid film.”
“Women have not yet achieved an equal stake in cinematography, or across the screen industries in general; 50:50 representation in 2020 has not come to pass. Recently, however, we have seen some positive changes. Since the founding of Illuminatrix, the number of female accredited members of the British Society Of Cinematographers has increased by my count from three to nine (out of 174 accredited members)….
… but what about those who are already working in our field? The Film & TV Charity’s “Looking Glass” Report found that, “minority groups face different and sometimes worse than average experiences at work” resulting in depression, anxiety, and the increased likelihood of leaving the industry due to mental health issues. “This means efforts to support diverse talent to get into the industry could be undermined by the experiences of minority groups once in work – essentially creating a ‘revolving door’…”
Women, especially those with caring responsibilities, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQIA+ workers were all identified as groups suffering from the culture and inflexibility of the industry. Sexual harassment, bullying, and other discriminatory behaviour – as well as long, inflexible working hours – were some of the issues cited as disproportionately affecting these groups.”
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
“Fujikina NYC 2022 is the must-attend event for all things Fujifilm, so if you’re an X Series or GFX System fan, here’s all you need to know….
Located at the stunning Glasshouse on 12th Avenue, New York, on September 10, 2022, there’ll be a host of unmissable talks from top photographers, including keynote speaker Greg Gorman, product demos, one-to-one studio sessions, and photo galleries showcasing the amazing creativity of photographers, filmmakers, and creators from all over the world….
But that’s not all. Fujikina NYC 2022 is also your chance to try out the latest range of GFX System and X Series cameras and lenses, including FUJIFILM X-H2S and FUJINON XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR and more.”
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 R LM PZ WR stills + video zoom lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with Fujinon XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8.0 R LM OIS WR zoom lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Commentary
The first word that popped into my mind on jumping to Fujifilm USA’s Get Set For Fujikina NYC 2022 page is diversity.
Diversity of ethnicity, diversity of gender, diversity of genre, diversity of subject matter, diversity of approach, diversity in almost every way though I can think of some diversities that appear as if they might be under-represented but time and the event itself will tell.
It seems that this wide range of diversity owes something to the appointment several years ago of Victor Ha as Vice President of Electronic Imaging Division and Optical Devices Division at FUJIFILM North America Corporation.
From listening to the FujiLove and In Love With the Process podcasts listed below, Mr Ha’s arrival heralded a huge reform of the culture at Fujifilm USA and it’s one that I hope will filter through to all branches of Fujifilm around the world.
Both of us here at Unititled.Net have experienced workplaces and industries rife with gatekeepers inside and out, with bullying, discrimination, inequality and even graft and corruption where every day is a misery to be endured until one can bear it no more.
Conversely, both of us have been lucky enough to have worked within the creative and high tech industries in the best jobs we have ever had until management changed hands and it all turned bad.
One of those companies was the global research and development division of Canon so it is refreshing to hear that it doesn’t always have to be that way and that Fujifilm USA, at least, has created a workplace that sounds like it’s one where we might well have been very happy indeed.
You may be able to experience a little of that by attending Fujikina NYC 2022.
For those of us who can’t get there, I hope that Fujifilm will make videos of the sessions available online.
Links
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Fstoppers – Fujifilm Says ‘We Must Do Better When It Comes to Diversity.’ Fstoppers Interviews Fujifilm’s Head of Marketing – “A few weeks ago, Fujifilm announced that it was shaking up its ambassador program — partly in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the fact that the overwhelming majority of camera ambassadors are white men. I sat down with Fujifilm North America’s head of marketing for digital cameras, Victor Ha, to find out what led to the changes and what the brand is doing to reflect the diversity of its customers.”
FujiLove Magazine – Muse Storytelling: Create, Make and Collaborate – “Fujifilm is the most iconic of all image making brands. But, they kicked off 2019 without a strong sense of brand identity and they wanted to understand who their brand is, from the perspective of the Fujifilm community. So, they partnered with Muse Storytelling to discover and share their brand voice.” – Create Forever video playlist at Fujifilm USA YouTube channel.
iHeart – FujiLove – All Things Fujifilm. A Podcast for Fuji X and GFX Users.– Episode 113: Interview with Victor Ha – “Victor HA is the Vice President of Electronic Imaging Division and Optical Devices Division at FUJIFILM North America as well as the mastermind behind FUJIKINA, an annual FUJIFILM event that has previously been exclusively held in Japan.”
In Love With The Process – EP205 | Supporting the Visual Storyteller (w/ Victor Ha) – “Victor Ha joins ILWP host Mike Pecci in studio and discusses his journey from photographing wedding to the Vice President of Electronic Imaging Division & Optical Services at FUJIFILM! Victor goes in depth into his love of artists and how he strives to be a connection between communities of image makers across the world!”
ThePhoblographer – This Is How The Photo Industry Can Be Saved – “Here’s a crazy opinion. I believe more women and people of color need to be in charge…. a lot of the industry is miles away from what Victor Ha and the group at Fujifilm have been doing…. There isn’t a lot of variation. But that’s what we need. And we need to do this with more women and POC. Sometimes that means more than just having some Japanese people on a team.”
Australian Director of Photography Nicola Daley ACS has joined the ranks of the rising stars of feature film and major TV series cinematography with soon-to-be-released Season Five of The Handmaid’s Tale under the directorship of THT star Elisabeth Moss.
Prior to that Ms Daley photographed biopic Benediction for Terence Davies after wrapping two episodes of Gentleman Jack, the TV series based on the life and diaries of early 19th century Halifax landowner and industrialist Annie Lister.
Other Australian Directors of Photography working in the same heady realms include Ari Wegner ACS (The Power of the Dog), Mandy Walker ACS, ASC (Elvis) and Zoë White ACS (The Handmaid’s Tale, Seasons 2 and 3).
Clapperboard for Director of Photography Nicola Daley ACS on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season Five. Image courtesy of Nicola Daley ACS.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season Five, starting on September 14, 2022. Cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS. Image courtesy of Nicola Daley ACS.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season Five, starting on September 14, 2022. Cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS. Image courtesy of Nicola Daley ACS.
Ben Allan ACS, CSI kindly shared these thoughts about Nicola Daley ACS:
“It was immediately obvious to me when I first met Nicola Daley over 20 years ago, that she was someone of exceptional ability.
When she was a rental prep technician I was always hopeful that she would be prepping my bookings because it would always be done right.
She was extremely intelligent and eager to learn and expand her skills.
When she went freelance I was able to bring her into my crew at times.
Having worked with her on set, none of her success since then has surprised me.
What has surprised me is how long it has taken.
To see it take years longer than it should for someone with such talent, work ethic and fun collaborative attitude highlights how big the barriers still are for women in cinematography.
But with incredible persistence Nicola is now getting the kind of opportunities she deserves.
I fully expect to see her holding an Oscar and thanking The Academy one day.”
Still-frames from some Nicola Daley ACS cinematography commissions
‘Gentleman Jack’, season 2, episode 4, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Gentleman Jack’, season 2, episode 4, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Gentleman Jack’, season 2, episode 4, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Benediction’, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Benediction’, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Benediction’, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Domina’, season 1, episode 6, 2021, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Domina’, season 1, episode 6, 2021, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
‘Domina’, season 1, episode 6, 2021, cinematography by Nicola Daley ACS.
Links
Australian Cinematographer – search results for “Nicola Daley”
Hulu – The Handmaid’s Tale – Season 5 commences on Wednesday, September 14, 2022.
The New Yorker – “Benediction,” Reviewed: The Bio-Pic as Radical Melodrama – “The cinematography, by Nicola Daley (remember her work and her name in awards season), also offers scenes of tightrope tension by way of an agile and graceful camera that uses the frame to trace the movement of time (a method reminiscent of that of another great cinematic artist of memory, Max Ophüls). Several of the sequences set in the military hospital offer camera moves that are as limpid and thrilling as a dance. One scene, which culminates in the parting of Sassoon and Owen, condenses a torrent of emotion into a figure of style so exquisite and reserved that it plays like cinematic literature itself.”
The Sydney Morning Herald – The Australian cinematographer on the cusp of Oscars history – Article contains a photograph of Australian cinematographer Robert Krasker who won his Oscar in 1951 for ‘The Third Man’ but bizarrely the clipping image refers to the movie as ‘The Third World’.
“The majority of people who work in film and TV camera departments in Australia say their work has caused mental health issues, while most women experience sexism and all indigenous people fear reporting discrimination and harassment, according to a report titled A Wider Lens, published today (July 18 [sic])….”
Commentary
We’ve experienced some devastating career-destroying and life-threatening bigotry and discrimination in the Australian media, communications and visual storytelling workplaces and tertiary education sectors over the years and little wonder given this ground-breaking report by the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) and its partners.
The members of the patriarchy have a great deal to answer for in their misogyny and discrimination against those born different to them.
Our very first contacts with the formal and independent education sectors were coloured with both and the discrimination was directed by the wealthy WASP boys who controlled them then as they control them now.
It was made clear by them that they would not accept outsiders intruding onto their turf and they defended that position with astounding brutality and outright lies.
Neither of us had role models who looked like us or came from similar backgrounds, neither of us had teachers like us and most certainly neither of us had mentors of any sort at all.
I quote the motto of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, “if she can see it, she can be it”, and neither of us had anyone in this country whom we could see in order to know who we could be.
All that and more must change right now for any of the communications media and storytelling industries to stand a chance of reflecting the reality of this world and the people who populate it.
Wealthy white men may be an extremely powerful class here in Australia and elsewhere but they are not the majority in this world and their time is up.
If “camera departments in this country are havens for sexual harassment, bullying … sexism, racism and discrimination about sexuality, age and disability, both from within their own team and from elsewhere on film crews” then it’s guaranteed that the same behaviours are entrenched throughout all other departments of the film and television industries.
And that is merely the tip of the iceberg.
A Fact Check
Just a quick fact check for the A Wider Lens: Australian Camera Workforce Development and Diversity report:
The initialism LGBTIQ+ is not a “sexuality“, that is, it is not a sexual orientation although L = lesbian, G = gay and B = bisexual are sexual orientations.
LGBTIQ+ is essentially a mash-up of certain specific sexual orientations, gender identities and sex characteristics given that all human beings have a sexual orientation, a gender identity and sex characteristics.
Better yet, let’s be even more inclusive and refer to it as the LGBTQIA+ collective given A for asexual people are also persecuted.
Intersectionality is a combination of the many and various persecutions of people within the LGBTIQA+ collective.
For example, intersex people are often persecuted at least due to interphobia, transphobia and homophobia based on unscientific assumptions fanned by the flames of religion and the pseudoscientific belief system of eugenics.
Equally pseudoscientific is the systemic pathologization of attraction, identity and embodiment that is used to justify persecution against all LGBTIQA+ people and those who are assumed to be so.
LGBTIQ+ problematic while SOGIESC is less so
The use of LGBTIQ+ can be problematic within a human rights framework and for some years now the initialism SOGIESC has proven more useful, more accurate and more granular.
Graphic explanation of SOGIESC by the UNHCR, The United Nations Refugee Agency. Image courtesy of UNHCR.
SOGIESC stands for sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics and this initialism recognizes that all human beings have all of them them in some form or other.
For example, sex characteristics includes intersex and endosex, with endosex being most common at around 98% and intersex being less common at around 2%.
Intersex people can have any sexual orientation, any gender identity and any gender expression so characterising intersex as a sexuality is inaccurate and as a result is of little use statistically speaking.
The Sydney Morning Herald – ‘My jaw hit the floor’: Report shows sexual harassment is rife in film and TV – “The acclaimed work of Australian cinematographers Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog), Mandy Walker (Elvis) and Zoe White (The Handmaid’s Tale) suggests women are making great strides shooting film and television production. But a new Australian report has painted a starkly different picture: camera departments in this country are havens for sexual harassment, bullying and poor mental health. Personnel have to deal with sexism, racism and discrimination about sexuality, age and disability, both from within their own team and from elsewhere on film crews.”
United Nations Human Rights – Intersex people – “Human rights abuses against intersex people include, but are not limited to: infanticide, forced and coercive medical interventions, discrimination in education, sport, employment and other services, lack of access to justice and remedies.”
Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 – website – PDF – “Additional principles and state obligations on the application of international human rights law in relation to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics [SOGIESC… Ed.] to complement the Yogyakarta Principles. The YP plus 10 was adopted on 10 November, 2017 to supplement the Yogyakarta Principles. The YP plus 10 document emerged from the intersection of the developments in international human rights law with the emerging understanding of violations suffered by persons on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity and the recognition of the distinct and intersectional grounds of gender expression and sex characteristics.”
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