theBLKGZE Manifesto
Photography shapes how we see the world
It shapes what we remember, what we value, and whose stories endure.
Yet photography cannot fully understand itself without the contributions, perspectives, and ways of seeing brought by Black photographers.
Their images have documented communities, preserved memory, expanded visual language, challenged dominant narratives, and transformed what photography can be.
This manifesto is rooted in a simple belief:
The Black gaze is more than a way of looking at Black people. It is a way of seeing shaped by Black experience, memory, culture, and imagination. It notices what other ways of seeing often overlook and produces forms of knowledge that photography cannot afford to ignore.
What we believe
1. Photography is never neutral
Photography does not simply document the world. It helps shape how the world is understood. Every photograph reflects choices about who is seen, who is remembered, and whose story matters.
2. The Black Gaze matters
The Black gaze is more than a way of looking at Black people. It is a way of seeing shaped by Black experience, memory, culture, and imagination. It notices what other ways of seeing often overlook and produces forms of knowledge that photography cannot afford to ignore.
3. Memory matters
Images shape memory. Memory shapes history. History shapes power.
Black archives, family albums, community histories, and photographic legacies deserve protection, preservation, study, and celebration. What is remembered shapes what becomes possible.
What we stand for
4. Black authorship
Who holds the camera matters.
The people who make photographs shape what enters history, what is remembered, and what becomes possible. Black photographers deserve the freedom to document, define, and imagine Black life on their own terms.
5. Expanding photography's story
The stories photography tells about itself are shaped by institutions, archives, exhibitions, awards, publications, and cultural memory. What is included matters. What is excluded matters too.
A history of photography that overlooks Black photographers cannot fully account for the people who have shaped the medium.
6. Reclaiming the narrative
For too long, Black stories have been framed through someone else's lens.
We champion photographers who challenge stereotypes, reject simplistic representations, and expand the possibilities of how Black life is seen and understood.
Black photography is not only a record of Black life.
It is also a practice of imagining otherwise.
The truth about photography
Black photographers have documented communities, preserved memory, expanded visual language, and transformed what photography can be.
Photography cannot fully understand itself without their contributions, perspectives, and ways of seeing.