A Guide to Nonviolent Language for Lens-Based Work

Often the words used to describe photography and image-making have echoes of hunting, colonialism, and enslavement. We at Diversify Photo would like to imagine a vocabulary that uplifts authorship and creativity.

This list, below, is a living resource of alternative words that we commit to using as photographers, editors, and writers to describe our and colleagues’ work. For each term or phrase we find problematic in bold, we suggest several alternatives.

Thoughts or questions? Email me at david@diversify.photo.

Cameraman [n.]
Lens-based worker, photographer

Capture [v.]
Make, create, collaborate, document, photograph, record, film, witness

Capture time [n.]
Write time, recorded time, creation time

Digital capture [n.]
Digital recording, digital image, digital file

Feature hunting [v.]
Enterprising

Freelance [adj.] (freelance photographer)
Independent

Grab [v.] (e.g. grab a shot)
Photograph, make a picture

Headshot [n.]
Profile photo, portrait

Just a photographer [phrase]
Just…don’t say it!

Man hours [n.]
Work hours

Man power [n.]
Labor force, workforce, labor, work

Master flash [n.]
Sender flash, leader flash, primary flash

My photographer [n.]
My colleague, the photographer, the photographer’s actual name

Sanity check [n.]
Confidence check, quick check

Shoot [n.]
A (photography) session, an assignment, a project, a photography job

Shoot [v.]
See Capture

Shooter [n.]
See My photographer

Slave flash [n.]
Receiver flash, secondary flash, follow flash, replica flash, standby flash

Subject [n] (e.g. photo)
Source, model, collaborator, sitter

Take [n]
See Shoot (n.)

Take [v]
See Capture

Other non-lens-based specific words

Blackhat [adj]
Unethical

Blacklist [v]
Denylist, blocklist

Grandfathered [v.]
Legacy status

Whitehat [adj]
Ethical

Whitelist [n]
Allowlist

Resources