As the team at WPPI finishes the intense process of choosing speakers for WPPI 2020, I’m always amazed at the number of proposals we receive from international applicants. This year, hopeful photographers and educators from over 15 countries took the time to think about an appropriate topic and put together their ideas.

Speaking at WPPI has always been considered an honor and for some, it’s also the pinnacle of their speaking careers. That’s why we work so hard to make sure that each proposal is carefully considered, every potential new speaker’s video is watched multiple times and every website is reviewed.

Along with all of that comes the responsibility to make sure that our attendees feel that they are represented, especially as more small conferences are springing up that cater to specific genres, genders and ethnic or cultural groups.

When I started at WPPI in 2004, there were four cornerstone shows: Imaging USA, WPPI, PhotoPlus and PMA (which no longer exists). Over time, smaller shows began to appear, like WEVA for wedding videographers, and PSPA for school and sports photographers. But if you looked closely at the speaker rosters at that time, there was a lack of women speakers as well as speakers of color. I found survey results from our WPPI 2007 showing male attendees at 55 percent and women attendees at 45 percent. And according to current statistics, the breakdown of working photographers in 2019 is still the same as it was in 2007 (re: datausa.io).  

The good news is that, even though the percentages have remained constant, the representation has increased with more women brand ambassadors, more women instructors and more products being marketed to them. Still, there’s a long way to go. The #MeToo movement has brought women’s issues to the forefront but our political climate has shown that ethnic, religious and gender biases are still very much a part of our society. 

Audrey Woulard, a children’s photographer based in Chicago, says she was one of the first black women to start speaking at major photo conferences. She feels that “as a black woman photographer, it is very easy to let the things that we encounter defeat us… I advance for other minority photographers who may follow me. I deal with adversity by continuing to break barriers within this industry.”

Kahran and Regis Bethencourt of CreativeSoul Photography have created a unique specialty with their Afro Art series, celebrating the beauty of black hair. They have been nationally recognized but admit it wasn’t easy in the beginning. “We struggled to fit into an industry that had its own standards and vision of beauty. Luckily, we started to tell our own stories in our own way and eventually created a grassroots movement, which helped open the door to more diversity in the industry.”

In 2017, Nikon released the D850 and invited 32 professional male photographers across Asia and Africa to test it out. The photographic community immediately picked up on the lack of women involved and a huge controversy was soon brewing. Tamara Lackey, a Nikon Ambassador, shared her feelings at the time: “It can be ridiculously frustrating to work in an industry that frequently promotes men over women on multiple fronts, including job opportunities and sometimes just through everyday language, tone and nuance. Nearly every working female photographer I know has dealt with setbacks or shutdowns, similar to those I’ve experienced over the years.” (Nikon apologized at the time.)

Wedding photographer Susan Stripling feels that change is slow in coming: “I can’t count the number of times people have made statements that presume that gender dictates skill, emotion or ability. I am constantly asked things like, ‘How do you balance your personal life with work?’ and, ‘Who watches your kids when you go to weddings?,’ while my male colleagues don’t have to entertain such queries. I have also felt a shift where vendors and industry professionals are trying to turn the tide, but it currently feels more like pandering to their audience rather than a genuine desire for equality.  I hope I am in this industry long enough to continue to be a strong advocate for women.”

Bottom line: The photography community is finally starting to acknowledge that there is more diversity in their world than ever before. As they should. Women have been involved in the field since the 1840s, when shops in Europe began opening studios (women photographers in the U.S. didn’t appear on the scene until the 1890s). 

There’s still a lot more work to be done, so I hope you will join us at WPPI 2020, where we will continue these discussions during our Women in Photography and Diversity in Photography Platform program panels with some of the strong voices included here.  

Arlene Evans is the WPPI conference producer. Previously, she was head of the photography channel at CreativeLive and before that, the director of WPPI. Email her your feedback or topics you want addressed in upcoming issues at [email protected]. 

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