The intervention is designed around the Media Photography tech-run Instagram account, @lcclondonphoto, and specifically the competitions run during term time – initiatives aimed at highlighting students’ and alumni’s work while offering free analogue film, a resource increasingly out of reach due to rising costs. As the competition designer, my positionality – a 33-year-old white British woman from London – directly affects what gets seen and shared. I’m often drawn to photographers or themes I personally like, and because of time pressures, these decisions are often made last minute. Although winners are selected collectively, the initial framing is already shaped by my implicit values, preferences, and lived experience.
Here, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality becomes crucial. Crenshaw (1989)1 argues that systems of power such as racism, sexism, and classism intersect in ways that compound the marginalisation of individuals who embody multiple minority identities. Applying this lens to my curatorial decisions helps reveal how dominant photographic narratives – often shaped by whiteness, maleness, and Eurocentric aesthetics – can unintentionally be reinforced when one fails to critically reflect on these intersections. My original curation of a ‘London Street Culture‘ theme, for example, largely featured white male photographers depicting Black subjects — an oversight that speaks directly to the invisibility that Crenshaw identifies. The Black subject was present, but the Black photographer – and their lived perspective – was not. I was alerted to this by my colleague D, who said ‘lol, with one image by the mandem’. I was annoyed at myself – highlighting that this intervention needs to be implemented in order to further foster compassionate pedagogy and belonging.
Schiffer (2020) discusses these same issues of power and representation when it comes to co-design, as I plan for @lcclondonphoto to feel collaborative, ‘different design disciplines are slowly beginning to recognise the importance to critically self-reflect on issues of power and representation in participatory and co-design’ (Kettley et al. 2017).2 Akama (2017) points out: ‘design expresses social priorities and values’ that in turn shape the impact designers have on the world.’3 I need to structure this competition collaboratively in order to be more inclusive.
By embedding intersectionality into the competition design, I aim to restructure how content is chosen and how themes are developed — not just to diversify for diversity’s sake, but to challenge which stories are told, who gets to tell them, and whose identities are seen as valid within visual culture, an ‘engaged pedagogical space, where students feel seen and part of a visual culture that reflects their world view’4 My academic practice is limited within my technical role – so this is a opportunity for me to share resources, students WIP and share alumni successes within the wider photographic community.
@lcclondonphoto started in 2019 by my colleague Mary and I took over running it when I returned from mat leave in 2023. I think it has risen to around 5.5k+ followers – entirely organically grown, is its personal approach – it isn’t run by a app, or algorithm driven, we’ve never cared too much about engagement but worked towards creating a platform that I hope supports students at ‘all stages of the student life cycle’5. UAL discusses prioritising ‘greater consistency in opportunities and outcomes’6 which I feel the competitions and the instagram as a whole does.
I thought when analysing the inclusivity I should look at the data – below is a breakdown of the audience – you can see below it separated into locations, age ranges and gender – the data is interesting, showing the majority of engagement is almost 50% from London – which makes sense (especially since Instagram and Meta are banned in China so stats from there are students using a VPN). The top age ranges are pretty equal between 25-34 and 18-24 bracket, this is probably a combination of the three masters courses we cater too, and the alumni community we’ve built, and perhaps how students are using instagram as a platform is shifting. You also get a breakdown of gender – this is binary, with no non-binary option, just Male or Female, therefore not an inclusive statistic, showing the percentage at almost 60% female. This is mirrored in the student cohort – but not in the staffing, and also not in the students who utilise our technical spaces.
The intervention becomes a way to build a more intersectionally aware platform — not simply amplifying more ‘diverse’ voices, but considering how race, gender, class, disability, and nationality overlap and impact who accesses visibility and creative opportunity. This echoes UAL’s ‘Anti-Racist Action Plan’ (2021), ‘produce materials which enhance teaching practice and support student learning and experience’7 but hopes to add a deeper layer — recognising that representation must also grapple with structural inequities embedded in photography, education, and even in the digital curation of content.
A fantastic resource and a big inspiration is Alice Rawsthorn (@alice.rawsthorn) author of Design Emergency: Building a Better Future (2022) and Design as an Attitude (2023) – she shares thematic informative posts; these made me think about what Shen and Sanders (2023) as they introduce ‘small learning interventions that can be flexibly incorporated into the current design curriculum to promote identity discovery and self-awareness among students.’8 Rawsthorn’s captions are as important as the imagery as she re-contextualises them, in one image by Wolfgang Tillmans ‘It’s only love give it away, 2005’ for ‘the colour purple‘ she breaks down how ‘purple is a rich, complex, wildly eclectic colour that comes in diverse shades – lilac, mauve, violet, lavender and so on – with a plethora of meanings, many of them mutually contradictory.’ Discussing its expense, associate with wealth and vanity. In a juxtaposed post she shows the Purple Rain protest highlighted in Cape Town in 1989. ‘On the day immediately after the original protest, graffiti appeared on walls throughout Cape Town, stating “The Purple Shall Govern”.’ An evidence-based breakdown of how the colour ‘purple’ came to represent a protest group & movement. My intervention design where each post can become a moment of recognition, identity discovery, or even critical disruption is the way forward. The aim is to not just share content, but hope to raise awareness of intersectionality within the photographic world and potentially shape our tiny LCC photographic culture and community. With students responses and engagement I hope for it to feel like they are ‘equal partners in the design process’9.
In our peer to peer reviews – the feedback mainly focused on the risks and barriers, which are high with this intervention. Being a collaborative process (Kodak and the students submissions) – a certain level of student engagement is required, and it also needs Kodak to send us free film – a relationship built individually via instagram. The amount of entries tends to fluctuate depending on the chosen theme, but I hope with a more overarching narrative and thematic approach students will feel there is more time for entries – therefore a more inclusive design overall.
The feedback from students and peers was about juggling work load and the organising of the references/themes, a great example is UAL’s co-production between the Arts Student Union, and Teaching, Learning and Employability Exchange ‘Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives in Higher Education’ ‘who produced a series of publications addressing disparities in experience and attainment for international students and students of colour. First published in 2018 the zines break down the colonial bias and euro-centric narrative pushed by HE in the UK and globally.’10 Their approach is inspiring and the incorporation of student and staff as part of the process feels necessary.
In response to this approach I looked into the data of my references from last term’s competition examples – I showcased the work of 40 photographers; 17 of those were white men (42.5%), 8 of those were white women (20%), 6 were men of colour (15%), 4 women of colour (10%) and 5 were collaborative projects (12.5%) (often featuring mix-genders). There were no non-binary artists (as far as I am aware). I then cross-referenced with the winners: 60% were white, 36% of them were male. This engagement with data — both on the demographics of the audience above and the references featured — reflects another intersectional concern: disparities between who is represented and who is participating. Crenshaw’s theory reminds us that inclusion efforts that ignore how multiple systems of disadvantage interact will continue to ‘fall short’11, as Fernandez et al (2024) quotes. This is seen in the data: while nearly 59% of the Instagram followers identify as female, only 30% of the referenced photographers were women, and none were non-binary or openly disabled. Intersectionality urges us to not only diversify the numbers but to also challenge the structures that have historically excluded certain voices altogether.
It was clear that my positionality meant I leant on popular websites (i.e BJP) and my own algorithm (white, female, euro-centric) for my inspiration. Planning themes in advance would not simply be a logistical improvement — it creates space to intentionally build intersectional narratives. That requires time, collaboration, and a willingness to let go of some control — which aligns with my goal of making the platform a space where students feel seen, heard, and mirrored. That when I would know the intervention is working.
It might make sense, for instance, considering the student cohort – to have more Chinese and East Asian photographers featured (I did this with one post around Lunar New Year), and I also considered aligning themes with Pride month, Black History month etc but Angela Drisdale-Gordon (2019) emphasises below that she ‘cannot get away from the fact that my ‘blackness’ is very prevalent – everyday.’12 If I were to only feature Black artists during Black History Month then you could say ‘what is to celebrate there?’… There are two sides to this argument; especially when dealing with social media, Meta algorithms and trends, the traction gained from being a part of a ‘specific month’ would mean more overall engagement. This is important to acknowledge but not our focus here.
As my intervention evolves, Crenshaw’s framework acts as a critical guide, encouraging ongoing self-reflection and structural awareness: not just what is shared, but how, why, and who is invited to contribute. I initially thought everyone who follows (as a current student or alumni) would feel invited but this reflective report has shown me that this is likely not the case.
I have observed that there are positives to be highlighted since the competition started in April 2024, we’ve awarded 122 winners with roughly 600 rolls of free film. It is important, and has introduced students to a range of photographic work and opportunities, and a sense of community sharing ideas, but the stats are disheartening – there being a direct correlation of whiteness in both references shared and the winners.
Upon reflection I made an inspiration board of Black artists, photographers and filmmakers – this took under five minutes, with most references coming from Aperture’s Vision & Justice publication (2016).
Summer 2016.
Although I haven’t completed the intervention, I intend to do so, this reflective report has shown me my own positionality, what needs to be implemented, how I can build upon what I’ve already done and reshape in order to weave in intersectional inclusive practices.
- Crenshaw, K (1989) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women
of Color ↩︎ - Schiffer, A. (2020) Positionality in Design ↩︎
- Schiffer, A. (2020) Positionality in Design ↩︎
- hooks, b. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. ↩︎
- Access and Participation Plan 2025-26 to 2028-29 (University of the Arts London) https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/458346/University-of-the-Arts-London-Access-and-Participation-Plan-2025-26-to-2028-29-PDF-1297KB.pdf [Accessed 26th June 2025] ↩︎
- Access and Participation Plan 2025-26 to 2028-29 (University of the Arts London) https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/458346/University-of-the-Arts-London-Access-and-Participation-Plan-2025-26-to-2028-29-PDF-1297KB.pdf [Accessed online 26th June 2025] ↩︎
- UAL Anti-racism action plan summary (2021) https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/296537/UAL-Anti-racism-action-plan-summary-2021.pdf [Accessed Online 14th June 2025] ↩︎
- Shen, Y and Sanders, E (2023) Identity discovery: Small learning interventions as catalysts for change in design education pp. 127 ↩︎
- Shen, Y and Sanders, E (2023) Identity discovery: Small learning interventions as catalysts for change in design education pp. 128 ↩︎
- Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives in Higher Education (2018-2025) https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk/ [Accessed online 18th June 2025] ↩︎
- Fernandez D, Orazzo E, Fry E, McMain A, Ryan MK, Wong CY and Begeny CT (2024) Gender and social class inequalities in higher education: intersectional reflections on a
workshop experience.
↩︎ - Drisdale-Gordon, A (2019) I’m Black Every Day, Every Week, Every Month, Every Year…
Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives on Higher Education, Zine 2 p.1 https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk/ [Accessed online 18th June 2025] ↩︎