About
This zine reflects on the history of racial bias in photographic technology. It explores how, for decades, film cameras were calibrated using “Shirley Cards”—standardised images of white women—that excluded people of colour from accurate representation. As a result, Black skin tones were often underexposed, misrepresented, or rendered invisible in printed photographs.
Through a combination of illustration and narrative, this zine also traces the technical and cultural journey from analog film to digital imaging, highlighting how photo standards evolved—yet still carried traces of exclusion. This publication reimagines the visual language of the Shirley Card, questioning whose image becomes the default, and whose presence remains unseen.