Representation Vs. Camera Shyness

At the end of last year (and by that, I mean last week), I received a message from a visitor to the site asking, “Why is it all white people on this website. Y’all don’t represent…. Why is the only black guy doing all the work?” I think it’s a bit of an uninformed question. First, it’s pretty well known that there aren’t a lot of Black geocachers (I’ve probably encountered a dozen or so at this point), so it stands to reason that most of the cachers I photograph are white. Second, “the [B]lack guy [is] doing all the work” because he is the one who has chosen to write all this. However, uninformed as the question is, it does point to a certain … well, point.

For a website that claims to document a Black geocaching experience, you don’t see a lot of photos of me or other Black cachers doing the thing, now, do you? I don’t usually have access to other Black cachers, so all I can reliably show is myself. I want to say that feels forced and artificial. Setting up something just to photograph myself finding a cache (or, more likely, myself with it after I’ve found it) feels like a giant waste of time and energy. In reality, I have been a bit camera shy for most of my life. I’m a lot better than I used to be. Very few photos of me from puberty into young adulthood do not show me covering my face, mostly because I feel that I have a face made for radio. I know it’s not that bad, but even though I’m now more comfortable with being caught on film, candid shots are the best ones because I still have trouble not mugging for the camera. And yet my feelings about my depiction run afoul of my problem: for a website that claims to document a Black geocaching experience, you don’t see many photos of me or other Black cachers doing any geocaching.

Well, that is something I intend to rectify. Yes, you’re still going to see my friends and me when we go to cache or attend Events. They are my friends, and they are cachers. Therefore, their experience is a part of my experience, even if they are a little paler than me. But I’m also going to start featuring more images of myself doing the thing that we all love. I can’t exactly be representative if I’m not representing, now, can I? No, it will not be easy for me. With this choice, I will run up against my natural shyness and my vanity—two forces that have guided more than a few of my decisions. But I’m not going to change the racial balance of geocaching images if I don’t make some images, now, will I? And whoever’s writing the equivalent of Geocaching While Latino or Geocaching While Asian? Hit me up! We need more of y’all, too!