“You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery. You can show beauty with it; you can do a lot of things. You can show—with a camera you can show things that you like about the universe, things you hate about the universe. It's capable of doing both.”
–Gordon Parks
This quote speaks to the heart of the work I do. Not every storyteller uses a camera as their main tool, but in whatever way we’re telling and sharing stories about the world we get to choose what to call attention to.
Try not to be one-note. Only showing the happy stuff risks being insensitive, and only showing the suffering risks being exploitative. Of furthering the idea that things must always be this way. Play against stereotypes. Depict movement and transformation.