Editor’s note: We thought you might find Zeteo UK contributor Sangita Myska’s interview with the renowned photographer and activist Misan Harriman on the new podcast, ‘Sangita Meets…’ a worthwhile watch, so we’re sharing it with all Zeteo subscribers today.
Paid Zeteo subscribers can watch this episode in full, but to access all of Zeteo UK’s shows and essays, as well as Zeteo content, going forward, do consider upgrading to our much cheaper bundle option today.
In just eight years since Misan Harriman took up photography, his photos have become some of the most iconic images of global protest movements from Black Lives Matter to climate change, LGBTQ+ and pro-Palestine rallies. In August 2020, he made history as the first Black male photographer to shoot a cover for British Vogue.
And in this episode of ‘Sangita Meets…’, Misan speaks to Sangita Myska about what drove him to pick up the camera. “Watching somebody that looks like me, George Floyd, lying in his own piss, asking for his mama, while still calling the men who had [a knee] on his neck, sir, as he left his mortal coil … The choice was already made for me,” he says.
In this personal and in-depth interview, Sangita also asks Misan – who has taken intimate portraits of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and their children – about how the British media has treated the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. “There is a healthy dose of good old fashioned misogyny, misogynoir, racism,” he says. “It’s a combination of greed as well because…that hate sells. It feeds an algorithm that’s designed for that.”
Misan also opens up on:
The “poison pen” of the press and its culpability in the tragic suicide death of Cambridge Professor Jason Arday, following what critics call a relentless, and often racist, media frenzy over his academic record
The vicious online campaign against him over his support for Gaza and criticisms of Israel (“The forensic scraping of any story posts, any collabs, any shares … It means that they would have seen my advocacy with multiple Jewish groups.”)
How he responds to criticisms that he’s part of the British elite
What it feels like to have someone else tell his own story, in the documentary about his life, ‘Shoot the People’.
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You can also find episodes of ‘Sangita Meets…’ wherever you get your podcasts.
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