Challenging Institutional Orientalism in Photography

Zara is joined by Sacred Footsteps' writers and photographers Afaq Ali and Omar Rais, and Chirag Wakaskar , a photographer based in Mumbai, India and creator of the @everydaymumbai project on Instagram. We discuss the response to our previous episode on Orientalism in travel photography, and Ali tells us about the 'Rooftop campaign' that demands National Geographic apologise for endorsing a 'racist and dehumanising' photo. Chirag talks about the problematic nature of 'Steve McCurry's India' and the ways in which photography is a tool of privilege within an Indian context, that often results in the 'othering' of the lower classes. Omar discusses the negative impact of 'voluntourism', a growing sector that is often linked to the 'white saviour' complex. Lastly, we talk about ways in which we can be proactive by supporting 'local' photographers.

You can listen to Challenging Institutional Orientalism in Photography online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Challenging Institutional Orientalism in Photography is an episode from Sacred Footsteps - The Podcast by Sacred Footsteps.

This episode is 45:22 long.

This episode was published on Mar 30, 2019.

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