Racial Justice Through the Lens of Science, Poetry, and Photography
AUG 19, 2021
JOSHUA SARIÑANA


Racial bias is well documented in photography—consider, for example, photographers’ inability to capture and expose darker skin tones with film. Within the emulsion of film, the chemicals that recapitulate light, is inherent social bias. There’s a distinct prejudice within the algorithms of our digital imaging technologies.

Mainstream media are bereft of, or misrepresent, people of color. In my own experiences, I am often the only Brown person, or person of color, in the room when attending exhibition openings.

Last year’s protests in response to the murder of George Floyd and the rampant anti-Asian hate crimes, along with my own struggles, motived something within me to be proactive.

Daniel Burje Chonde, MD, Ph.D., resident in radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, executive director of the Peoples’ heART

From “Daniel Chonde, Scientist, Beaver” by Danielle Legros Georges

Sheena Vasquez, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology at MIT

From “X-Ray” by Danielle Legros Georges

Nandita Menon, MS, technical associate at MIT

From “Under the Eucalyptus Tree” by Charles Coe

Kathleen Esfahany, computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence researcher at MIT

From “The Shades of Us” by Suparnamaaya Prasad

Christian Loyo, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology at MIT

From “Looking” by Luisa Fernanda Apolaya Torres

Jason Samaroo, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology at Boston University

Poem by Sophie Laurence

You can see the fully gallery here and read the poetry here.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

About the author: Joshua Sariñana, PhD, is a neuroscientist, photographer, and director of The Poetry of Science. You can read his previous PetaPixel articles here and view his photography on his website.