The Unexposed Collective is a platform for women and non-binary street photographers from around the world. Unexposed Australasia and Unexposed South Asia are the latest branches of the collective. The Collective is the brainchild of Julia Coddington and Rebecca Wiltshire, two Australia based street photographers passionate about making the street photography genre more inclusive along with building a supportive and collaborative community for women photographers.

The Collective was launched in 2018 but conceptualized a few years earlier in India when Rebecca and Julia were travelling together in the country. Finding their way back to India, their work, ‘‘Double Exposed’’, a series of diptychs presenting the work of female photographers from Australasia and South Asia regions is one of the winners at the Indian Photo Festival 2020. Each diptych in the series consists of two paired images by two artists, one from each region, which brings out the cultural differences between the regions through the lens of contemporary female photographers from India, Bangladesh, Australia and New Zealand.

Samyak Drishti caught up with Julia Coddington and Rebecca Wiltshire to talk about their vision for the Collective and the shared experience of putting together “Double Exposed”.

Please tell us about your individual journeys in photography and what draws you to street photography in particular?

Julia:

I’ve always been fascinated with the way people interact and have always enjoyed photographing those interactions. Back in the 1980s, when I lived in Indonesia and travelled around Asia, I loved photographing people on the streets, but I was unaware of the genre of street photography at the time. After I got my first iPhone in 2008, I re-discovered the joy of discreetly making photos of people in the street.

In 2012, I became more aware of street photography after being inspired by Elliot Erwitt’s work at an exhibition in Vienna. It was after that experience and several months of travel and experimentation that I fell completely in love with street photography!

I’m drawn to the genre for several reasons: I love observing interactions between people, tuning into those interactions and waiting to capture that perfect moment; the addiction to the fugue-like state I reach when I’m ‘in the zone’; and the ability to become invisible, so that I can insert myself into a scene and become as one with it, and even with the image itself.

In 2016 as I started posting more online, and I became curious about why street photography was a very male-dominated genre. I searched for other female street photographers but found only a few. However, I did discover that there were one or two female-only street photography platforms and so I started posting to them. I became more active on those platforms, particularly @womeninstreet, a group founded by Minnesota-based photographer Casey Meshbesher.

In late 2017 I met Rebecca while we were on a workshop in India. We both despaired at the low representation of women in the genre and decided we would start the Unexposed Collective, a women-only platform based in Australia designed to give women here a place to show their work and to be part of a supportive community. The Collective has developed into a vibrant and creative community, and strong friendships have formed as a result. We organise photo walks and exhibitions, and regularly connect on social media and in person, and some of us have travelled to other parts of the world together!

Rebecca:

I am 50 now and I got my first proper camera when I was 45. My father enjoyed photography and I grew up on National Geographic, loving these images. I studied photography at high school but did not continue with this as I pursued study and a
professional life in a different direction. For years I have enjoyed travel and have always had an eye for a certain aesthetic in my travel snaps and what I found caught my eye and curiosity. Photography has been an interest I had always wanted to pursue, and that “right time” came a few years back.

Initially I was a bit lost in the direction of photography I wanted to go down. I happened across some images by Mary Ellen Mark and started exploring the genre of street photography. I was really captured by the candid and sometimes quirky nature of the images, and soon found myself addicted to this style of imagery. I really enjoy the freedom of getting outside, with only a small camera and becoming immersed in the moment, creating images from whatever captures my eye. Street photography is hard to do well, and I quite enjoy the challenge of learning and pushing myself further.

My part in the journey of Unexposed Collective with Julia, taking it from an idea to where it is now, is similar to Julia’s. I started to connect with the street community after doing a workshop with Polish street photographer Maciej Dakowicz in 2016. I met Julia the year after, and the Unexposed story started from there. The community that has come together with this platform, and others like @womeninstreet, has brought with it new and fantastic friendships, shooting, workshop and travel buddies, collaborative opportunities and support both locally and in the broader international community.

Image Credit: (left) Sonika & Catherine, (right) Dimpy & Holly

How did the Unexposed Collective come about? What was the objective behind forming the collective?

The Unexposed Collective was formed in January 2018, although the concept was born earlier when we (Rebecca and Julia) were travelling together in India. The initial idea was for an Australian-based collective. We felt that given street photography was still a relatively young and evolving genre in Australia, there was an opportunity to give women and NB people a head start by forming and building a supportive community. It turns out that there are many gifted women and non-binary (NB) street photographers in our country and our work is definitely unique because of our environment and culture. As women we also have easier access to particular subjects and places and we want to use that to our advantage.

We also wanted to provide a platform that allowed us all to come together and feel supported, encouraged to showcase our work and, most importantly, to learn from each other. We wanted our group to be collaborative and inclusive rather than competitive and exclusive so unlike a traditional collective, people are not invited to join; they can simply join. We hoped that Unexposed would expose our member’s work, nationally and internationally, and put them, and other women and NB photographers on a more level footing with our male counterparts.

Image Credit: (left) Suzanne & Riya, (right) Chetna & Deb

Our Collective has since changed. Earlier this year we decided to open it up to women internationally. We weren’t sure how it would go, but we have had a great response. At the same time, in order to maintain the special connections we had made in our region, we also created an Australasian branch (Unexposed Australasia) that now also includes people from New Zealand. Unexposed Australasia is a closed group for Australasian female, non-binary and intersex photographers.

Rebecca and I have travelled frequently to India over the years, and have made many friends there. In collaboration with our good friend Debrani Das, who is a gifted photographer from Kolkata, we have also decided to launch an Unexposed Collective branch in South Asia, in a region where street photography is even more male dominated compared to other parts of the world. We felt there was a great opportunity to build a female-only platform to encourage women to find their voice within a safe and mutually supportive community. Unexposed South Asia is still in its infancy, but we are hopeful that it will grow into a strong community.

So perhaps the main objective of the Unexposed Collective (and its branches) is to give women and non-binary street photographers a voice in a male dominated genre, to provide a safe and supportive space and to build community.

How does the collective support the work of women street photographers?

The collective and its branches, supports the work of women and non binary street photographers by:

• Providing safe spaces for women to express themselves photographically, where they can feel more comfortable on a female only platform and feel less exposed to criticism.
• Building an active, engaged, supportive and collaborative community of street photographers
• Learning from each other, providing educational opportunities and gradually improving the quality of our work
• Promoting and encouraging the ‘candid’ form of street photography
• Collaborating with, and building connections with other photography organisations to promote our members and gain more exposure for female street photographers through exhibitions and involvement with festivals (such as IPF),
• Celebrating and promoting the successes of female, non-binary and intersex street photographers to build confidence
• Sharing information and resources available to our members, such as competitions, festivals, exhibitions and workshops

Image Credit: from left (1st) Jo K & Nivedita, (2nd) _16. Kinda J & Mithu, (3rd) _15. Kirsty & Tanjila

According to you, what are the most challenging aspects of street photography especially for women and non-binary persons?

The most challenging aspect for women and NB people is gaining respect for their photography. This has always been difficult for women in most aspects of life.

The other issue many women have is lack of confidence and an unwillingness to put themselves forward. Too often they are reminded this is not appropriate behaviour, so if women promote themselves they are looked upon as being too assertive or ‘pushy’. Women tend to be more modest about their achievements because of this. Men don’t have this issue as it is normal and almost expected for them to promote themselves.

Are there any disadvantages / limitations for women while photographing the streets?

There are both disadvantages and advantages.

The main disadvantage is obvious – women are less safe and more vulnerable than men. This limits the places and times they can shoot. It is harder to go to certain areas that are deemed unsafe for women and it is hard for them to shoot at night. There are also cultural and religious constraints. In some countries, women simply are not allowed to be in certain places or at certain events or to photograph them.

However, women do have the advantage of being less threatening, so are less likely to be confronted when they are making photos. It is also much easier for women to photograph other women and children.

Do you think the narrative of the streets changes when women and NB photographers take to the streets?

People may talk about the female gaze (as opposed to the male gaze), assuming that female photographers see differently to male photographers. However, the way photographers see is a result of many factors, not just gender. It is influenced very much by one’s culture, childhood, life experiences and personality. So the narrative of the street only really changes in terms of where women and NB photographers can go and what they can photograph.

Image Credit: From top left (1st) Francesca & Pinky, (2nd) Sahela & Jill, (3rd) Francesca & Pinky; Bottom Left (1st) Gloria & Debaroti, (2nd)Rosiw & Moushumee

What was the idea behind the series, ‘Double Exposed’?

We have curated three women street photography exhibitions in the last couple of years, including: Two Way Street (a @womeninstreet exhibition of diptychs at Street Foto San Francisco 2019), Exposed (an exhibition of work by female and NB street photographers at the Head On Photography Festival 2019, in Sydney), and Double Trouble (an exhibition of diptychs by the Unexposed Collective in collaboration with @womeninstreet at the Head On Photography Festival 2020).

Those exhibitions have been a great success, exposing the work of female street photographers to large audiences. By using diptychs, we not only create a more interesting narrative between pairs of images but also increase the number of participating photographers.

With the success of those exhibitions behind us, we thought a collaboration between the Australasian and South Asian branches of the Unexposed Collective would be an interesting way to both introduce the new communities and to build on existing relationships between women from the two regions.

Pairing two photographs from different regions was a pre-planned effort or something that came together organically after the submissions were made?

It was intentional. By pairing two images from photographers from different cultural backgrounds and experiences, we hoped it would make for more interesting diptychs. This made it more challenging of course. But in the end we believe that the challenge paid off.

What was the highlight or rather an unexpected learning when ‘Double Exposed’ came together as a series?

We were very pleased with the quality of work we received and the quality of the final diptychs. In addition, we discovered there was a lot of untapped talent from both regions!

Image Credit: From left (1st) Anita & Leonie, (2nd) Julia & Jayati

If you had to give one advice to aspiring street photographers, what would it be?

Be confident when you are photographing on the streets but most importantly, smile, be happy and enjoy what you are doing.

Double Exposed is one of the winners at Indian Photo Festival this year, tell us about how this came about and what do you hope for the series and the collective through this collaboration?

We are ecstatic that we are one of the winners of the Festival this year. It is indeed an honour for us to be included!

When we formed the two branches of Unexposed, we decided one of our first collaborations should be to submit a project to this prestigious festival. By submitting and winning we have achieved a major goal of the collective, and that is to expose the work of female street photographers. We have also fulfilled the objective of collaborative work between our two branches and enhanced our sense of community as female street photographers.

We have photographers in Double Exposed who have never exhibited before, let alone as part of IPF, and we hope this increases their confidence and motivation to continue developing their art. It also helps to increase their engagement within the Unexposed community, knowing that there are so many benefits when we all work together.

Questions for Photographers of Double Exposed series (Any two photographers from the series)

What was your personal approach while working on the series?

We worked with the cofounders of the two branches (our Unexposed management team), Debrani Das (Unexposed South Asia), Linda Maclean and Susan Brunialti (Unexposed Australasia) to create the diptychs. We shared potential matches that we made individually, and collectively agreed on the final selections.

How was your overall experience of working on the series?

Creating diptychs is like a challenging game so it’s a lot of fun. We have a great team and we communicate well, so overall it was rewarding experience.

How did the collaboration between different collective from different parts of the world actually work? To what extent was it planned?

Unexposed Australasia and Unexposed South Asia are branches under the umbrella of Unexposed, which is an international community. Many of the photographers know each other through these groups and other street photography groups (the street photography community is relatively small). We had previously collaborated with @womeninstreet to put together the Double Trouble exhibition which is part of the Head On Photography Festival in Australia, so we had some experience already with collaborations. When the opportunity to submit to IPF came up we thought it would be a perfect collaboration between Unexposed South Asia and Unexposed Australasia, given the close ties we already had, so yes, it was planned.

As part of the collaborative process, we invited artists from both groups to submit images they thought had potential to use in a diptych. From those submissions we had a pool of images for the curatorial group to work with. To create each diptych we started with a strong image, and then worked through the other submitted images and the galleries of the submitting artists, to find an image that created a strong match. The successful matches were strong visually, but usually with a connecting narrative as as well. In some instances we had very strong images from talented artists, but were not able to find corresponding matches, which was disappointing as we wanted to include as many artists as possible in the series.

Did you get a chance to interact and exchange notes with other photographers while working on the series?

Yes, the other members of our Unexposed management team worked together on the series closely by forming a private Facebook group to post diptychs and to exchange ideas. We also chat regularly on messenger and on Zoom.

Image Credit: From left (1st) Lopa & Sally, (2nd) Sari & Dipinwata