Q&A: Marc Femenia
...photojournalist who criticizes the image of immigrants in the photo exhibit "We, the Unseen" at The Museum of Work in Norrköping. The exhibit consists of a series of portraits of successful people in the professions of architect, journalist, physical therapist, Member of Parliament, or business school graduate - all with foreign background.
Why did you want to put together this exhibit?
"If you go by the image portrayed in the media all immigrants work as taxi drivers or pizza bakers. I want to show that this is not how it is. Since I came to the Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm as a PhD student from Barcelona I have thought a lot about this. I didn't identify with the image of society that comes forth in the media. I was neither a part of ‘us' nor ‘them,' I simply did not exist. This is my way of trying to start up a debate."
You left the world of academia for photography and are now in your last term at a prominent photojournalism school while doing an internship at the photo agency Scanpix. Last spring you did an internship at Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter and you have worked during the summers at local newspapers in Sweden. What do you do to avoid being stereotyped in your own work?
"In my daily life I mostly concentrate on doing a particular job, and as a photographer I am at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to making decisions after the managing editor and reporters. I try to talk to the reporter I'm working with if I think the angle is cliché or discriminating. In 99 percent of the cases it's not about racism, but about structures within society. But it's a sensitive subject, people can easily assume that I'm accusing them of being racist."
Why should press photographers think about this, if they don't get to decide anyway?
"This is very important! It's so easy to take the same kind of picture over and over again. You have to be aware of what's been done before, and think in new ways.
For example, if I'm taking pictures for a survey at a school in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, I don't have to take a picture of even more young "immigrant guys" in a pack, who look tough and are photographed from below.
And if I'm going to take pictures of an architect, I can choose a person who isn't ethnically Swedish. Contrary to popular belief, there are many immigrants who work all kinds of jobs. It really wasn't hard at all to find people for my exhibit."
This article was first published in 20081003. The Swedish version here.