COURTESY OF MYLES LOFTIN, COURTESY OF ABDM STUDIO, COURTESY OF BUKUNMI GRACE
This story was published on Who What Wear, in March 2021.
For every artist, there is a creative medium that they secretly love. For me, that’s photography. It’s wild to think of how powerful this art form is and how a single image can shift cultural awareness. Magazine covers (whether found on glossy pages or in the digital realm) have the power to define what is beautiful, what is worth documenting, and, more importantly, who gets to capture it behind the lens.
It’s no secret that the fashion industry has failed to ensure that the subjects in front of and the people behind the camera reflected the full scope of humanity. That being said, efforts to change the fashion industry have been increasingly successful over the past few years. We’ve seen a conscious shift to support Black designers and hire Black stylists. Publications that have rarely hired Black photographers over the decades of their existence have done so recently. But even with these strides, there’s still more work to be done outside one month of the year. If the cultural conversations playing out across social media about cover shoots (both negative and positive) are any indication, it’s that we crave to see the world through a different lens and that images coming out of the fashion industry have not historically reflected the world at large.
Photographers who have been out here shooting are just beginning to get the recognition, opportunities, and pay that they deserve. The industry won’t change overnight, but we can continue to push for parity by getting to know a few of these groundbreaking photographers on a deeper level.
In that vein, we spoke with five photographers about what inspired them to get into the industry, what photography means to them on a personal level, and what a more inclusive fashion industry looks like in the near future. Keep reading to meet the talent that’s changing the world one shot at a time.
Dana Scruggs has been a photographer for over seven years and is a maverick in her own right. She was the first Black female photographer to shoot an athlete for ESPN Magazine’s Body Issue in its 10-year history and the first Black person to photograph Rolling Stone’s cover in its 50-year history. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Time Magazine.
COURTESY OF DANA SCRUGGS
What first inspired you to pick up a camera?
DS: I discovered photography when I was going through a period of severe depression. I was unable to leave my house or to work. In order to pay my rent, I sold all the vintage clothing and furniture I had in my apartment at the time on Etsy. At first, I started shooting with this shitty point-and-shoot camera, but I knew it wouldn’t be good enough because everyone brings their A-game to their photography on Etsy. So I asked my mom to help me get my first camera. It wasn’t easy for me to convince her to help me because it wasn’t an insignificant amount of money to spend when I was at my lowest point. But she let me buy it on her BestBuy card, and I eventually paid her back just like I promised I would. I credit her for helping me take that first serious leap into photography.
How did you get to where you are now?
DS: It was a long road. Even after I decided I was going to pursue photography as a career and move to New York, I still had no clue how the business side of photography functioned. I would ask other photographers how they got clients or got the chance to shoot celebrities, and I would get very vague responses. I felt very frustrated because I couldn’t figure out how it worked. Finally, a friend of mine, Giancarlo Valentine, gave me advice that changed my life: He shared a small list of photo editors that I should contact and suggested that I email them links to my work. That bit of advice changed my life and my career. Once I knew how to find contact information, there were fewer barriers to connect to people with the ability to hire me.
Of course, that didn’t immediately open doors. It wasn’t until Karen Frank, ESPN’s photo director, emailed me about shooting The Body Issue that things changed for me. It was wild that she reached out because that's the type of opportunity that’s like a bucket list thing—you never think it will happen because such a small percentage of photographers get that opportunity.
COURTESY OF DANA SCRUGGS
From your experience, it sounds like you dealt with a lot of gatekeeping. Do you feel like there are ways the industry can make it easier for photographers to have career-changing opportunities?
DS: I think it’s starting to change with more Black photographers that are getting opportunities, but of course, there’s always room for growth. That wasn’t happening when I finally leaped into this level of my career two years ago, and that’s why I share this information constantly. It’s not information that should be kept a secret. Once people have the talent and connections, if that job is meant for you, you’re going to get it. And frankly, we’re making some of the most dynamic work that you’ve seen come out of the editorial, commercial, and fashion photography space. We’ve been filling in the gaps of creativity that have been missing within those spaces. Publications that have given Black photographers a chance to see how their perspective and talent have been vital to creating some of the most extraordinary covers in their history. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Historically, Black communities have been unable to control the images, stories, and media surrounding our community. What does it mean to you to create without confines and ownership over the story told?
There are always confines; there are just different levels of it. Depending upon who you’re shooting for, what you’re shooting, who you’re shooting. But the point always is to try to push beyond those limitations. Of course, you want to make great images, but you don’t want to rest on what’s expected of you. You always want to wow people, but most importantly, you want to “wow” yourself. That’s why I make an effort to be intentional about the jobs I’m taking. I’m being very intentional about how I’m photographing each project so that I don’t feel like I’m creating without a purpose and so that my work has meaning to me regardless of who or what I’m shooting.
COURTESY OF DANA SCRUGGS
What roles have art and photography played in your life thus far?
DS: Honestly, photography has given me my life back. When I was depressed, I thought I had nothing left to offer the world. I thought my life was over, that I just had failed at too many things and had no future. I had gotten to the point where I couldn’t see any good in my future. I couldn’t see what possibilities there were or could be. Finding photography gave me purpose. It gave me a reason to get out of bed. It gave me a reason to believe in myself and to push past the deep depression I was in. I still suffer from depression here and there, but it’s no longer debilitating like it was before. Photography gave me the success and stability that I was seeking.
Why do you think photography is an integral part of everyone’s lives as a whole?
DS: It’s crucial because it’s a documentation of human history. Without it, we wouldn’t have such a visceral visual narrative showing who we are now, how we act, and how we’ve shifted culturally, politically, and creatively. When you look at older photos from any era since we’ve had photography, you can see how people lived—you get to see how different we’ve all become and how the same we are. It’s fascinating. Sometimes I’ll look at photos from the Victorian era or old family photos from the 1920s or ’60s or ’80s. They were all me at that point. They were young people living and surviving. Many of them are dead and gone, but those photographs are a symbol of their existence. That’s why photography is essential. You have something that is a physical manifestation of the fact that you were here, regardless of if anyone remembers you or not.