Ethical Storytelling Starts With Recognizing Your Own Privilege
A documentary photographer on privilege, ethical storytelling, and why recognizing what you didn't earn is the first step toward meaningful creative work.
Mirror selfie in La Fortuna, Costa Rica (Summer 2024)
With the current state of the world *gestures broadly at everything* I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my life experiences, values, and where they come from. I’ve accomplished things in my early 20s that my younger self could never even imagine…but these things are far from unpredictable.
As a documentary photographer and visual storyteller based in Duluth, Minnesota, I get invited into a lot of rooms I wouldn't otherwise be in. I've documented everything from luxury wedding days to wake-up calls at the local homeless shelter. Some days it feels like I bounce between socioeconomic levels like a ping-pong ball.
Unlike much of the media we consume, I don't enter those rooms with a predetermined narrative to push. I'm simply a guest. I document what I see and how it felt, giving me a unique, anthropological view into our society as we know it. And that view has made it impossible to ignore the “invisible” privileges that got me here.
An Honest Inventory of Privilege
So here it is. An audit. Not a guilt trip, but a reckoning I needed to face. And maybe you do, too.
(Note: there are a lot of privileges I’ve benefited from that aren’t listed here, but you get the idea).
What the Audit Means for How I Work
So much of life is up to chance, and I happened to land on a square of the board with more safety and more access. That doesn't erase or dismiss the times I've struggled, but it means I've had options. Doors. Second, third, and fourth chances.
This is the lens through which I approach every assignment, every story, every subject. Ethical documentary photography isn't just a phrase pumped with industry buzzwords. It means walking into spaces with humility, recognizing the gap between my lived experience and that of my subjects, and letting their truth lead rather than my assumptions.
When your life is handed to you on a silver platter (when others get a flimsy paper plate) you owe it to the world to do something meaningful with it.
What “Do Something Meaningful” Actually Looks Like
"You can sleep when you're dead" is something I've always said. At face-value, it sounds like I’m a corporate workaholic. But what I really mean is: linger a little longer.
Call your people when you think of them, even if it's just to say hello. Search Facebook Marketplace before you buy it from Target. Volunteer locally. Introduce yourself to someone new and invite them for coffee. Surprise a friend with baked goods (it always goes over well). Recognize the privileges you have that others may not. Find where you can fill that gap — and get others involved. Stop doomscrolling and drink a hot cup of tea before bed instead.
This is the philosophy behind Conversations Sobremesa — my newsletter named for the Spanish tradition of lingering around the table after a meal in deep, meaningful conversation. It's the same philosophy behind every photograph I take.
Why Ethical Storytelling Requires Recognizing Your Own Position
As photographers and visual storytellers, we carry enormous power. We decide whose story gets told, how it's framed, and who gets to see it. When we enter communities that aren't our own—especially marginalized communities, communities in crisis, communities navigating systems that were never designed for them—we have a responsibility to show up with awareness. That awareness starts with an honest look at the privileges that gave us the camera, the education, the mobility, and the platform in the first place.
Then when yet another headline flattens an entire population into a caricature, I hope you won't picture an abstract issue. You'll picture someone whose laugh you know, who hasn't been dealt a fair hand, and is at the mercy of a system that just doesn't care. That's the work. That's what I'm trying to do with every photo, every story, every newsletter. Building a better world starts here. With you, and with me.
In all things love, Molly
Molly Suzanne Creative | Documentary Photography & Visual Storytelling | Duluth, MN