Why Photography Can’t Get Woke

When Nikon Corp. hired 32 photographers to travel around Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, taking pictures to promote its new $3,300 D850 camera this fall, the Japanese camera company made sure to select people from different countries—more than a dozen, including India, Indonesia, Kuwait, South Africa, and Australia. Nikon also made sure the photographers specialized in diverse range of genres, from sports to wedding photography. But there was one glaring omission: All 32 of the people they chose were men.

This didn’t go over well with women—or photographers. “Guess they forgot to invite me?” tweeted conflict-zone photographer Lynsey Addario, whose work has appeared in National Geographic and Time, and who, ironically, is listed as one of Nikon’s so-called ambassadors in America. The BBC called Nikon sexist, while the popular photography website Fstoppers joked that maybe the D850 was designed purely for men. When I asked Nikon what happened, the company admitted that it hadn’t considered gender when selecting photographers. “This was an oversight and reflective of an industry-wide concern,” the company said in a written statement.