Thirty Photographers Due to be Illuminated

Wildfire smoke fills the sky as herding dogs wrangle sheep in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest near Cle Elum, Wash. The dogs work with shepherds who are part of the last large-scale sheepherding operation allowed on forest land in Washington state. © Sofia Jaramillo

Portrait of Nora "Akwafina" Lum, one of the stars of Crazy Rich Asians and Oceans 8. Lum's characters in both films serve to expand the casting narrative of Asian-Americans in Hollywood films, beyond the straight-laced and studious supporting character.” © Shirley Yu

Two men get sprayed by law enforcement with high-pressure water during a demonstration near the Oceti Sakowin Camp. Cannon Ball, ND. 2016. © Josue Rivas

Portrait of Don Bell, resident of Town Hall in Chicago. Shot for an AARP Magazine story titled, "Old and Gay: 9 Actions We Need to Take Now for the Aging Rainbow Nation." © Lucy Hewett

Taken April 27, 2016 during a rally in West Baltimore as protestors and supporters march through the street, two young boys on bicycles raise their fists as a police car drives away from them. This image was taken around the one-year anniversary of the death of Freddie Gray and the 2015 uprising. © Shan Wallace

Portrait of Morgane Richardson, (Doula, Childbirth Educator, LGBTQ Birth Activist, & Director of the NYC Doula Collective) photographed for Birth, a personal project documenting women of color birth workers in America. The series includes interviews and archetypical imagery to further shine a spot light on the maternal healthcare crisis in America. © Kelly Marshall

Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, sits in a reflective space at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Photographed for NPR. © Lynsey Weatherspoon

A mule market which takes place in Lalibela, Ethiopia for three days every year during Ethiopian Christmas. January 2016. © Maheder Haileselassie

A boy plays at the Dr. Francisco Hernández y Gaetan Elementary School in Santurce, San Juan, on the first day of school after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico. Photographed for the New York Times. (Erika P. Rodriguez © 2017)

Portrait of pro basketball player Kwabena Benya shot at "The Cage" on West 4th Street. Kwabena and I met on the streetball scene in NYC a year ago and we wanted to work together to pay homage to the game of basketball as a sport and culture that we grew up with, aside from me always wanting to use my skill, platform and creativity to elevate and represent black people. © Anthony Geathers

Last week, a roster of 30 contemporary photographers to watch was announced. Unlike most lists produced by the photo industry, this lineup is committed to recognizing and awarding the work of photographers who are womxn, femmes, trans, non-binary people of color, or otherwise marginalized artists.

Frustrated with the lack of diversity among the photo industry’s award winners and determined to uplift their own, The Authority Collective, in partnership with Diversify.Photo, created “The Lit List,” a merit-based inventory of 30 photographers to follow, hire and exhibit. The initiative is a direct response to the consistent lack of recognition of marginalized artists.

“To be frank,” said Oriana Koren in an interview with Jon Feinstein, “there are too many people in positions of power in lens-based industries who simply don’t want to see our industry become inclusive because it threatens a particular sense of power and privilege they enjoy.”

To create the list, two hundred nominations were made by select photographers, photo editors and creative directors. Koren told Feinstein the jurors were people that Authority Collective had seen “show up as collaborators in disruption instead of on-the-sideline allies” in the industry. Their nominations were then pared down to a short-list of 50 by a hand-picked jury consisting of Tara Pixley, Rozette Rago, Andrea Wise, Brent Lewis and Yvonne Stender. Lastly, 30 photographers were chosen from the short-list as 2018 Lit List Finalists. The awarded photographers were chosen by a jury including Zora J Murff, Paloma Shutes, Siobhán Bohnacker and Noelle Flores-Theard.

In conversation with Feinstein, Koren explained that the list was created to accomplish a two main things: “primarily, showing marginalized artists that we believe in their talent…and second, that these systems can be disrupted in a way that actually helps to create a sustainable and inclusive industry in which everyone is able to thrive and succeed.”

The 2018 Lit List Finalists are:
Aisha Mugo, Andrea Morales, Anthony Geathers, Arlene Mejorado, Aundre Larrow, Carmen Chan, Carolina Hidalgo, Dana Scruggs, Eloisa Lopez, Erika P. Rodriguez, Gabriella Angotti-Jones, Jared Soares, Jessica Pettway, Josué Rivas, Kayla Reefer, Kelly Marshall, Lucy Hewett, Lynsey Weatherspoon, Maheder Haileselassie, Maria del Rio, Mengwen Cao, Meron Menghistab, Michael M. Santiago, Miranda Barnes, Nichole Washington, Rhynna M. Santos, Shan Wallace, Shirley Yu, Sofia Jaramillo, Sophia Nahli Allison.