Meet the Queer Photographers of Google’s Creator Lab
| 05/25/22
Google Creator Labs
Google Creator Labs was founded in 2019 as a partnership between Google Pixel, and SN37 to provide resources for photographers, filmmakers, and YouTubers to create work grounded in a social cause. For its sixth season Google Creator Labs chose a diverse group of photographers who were given Pixel 6, the camera phone with Real Tone, a new software that promotes image equity through a more accurate depiction of skin tone. Images captured on the phone were featured in the “Seen on Pixel” Super Bowl ad earlier this year.
Google Creator Labs then challenged this 2022 group of photographers to use the Pixel 6 with Real Tone to create their own personal interpretation of “Seen on Pixel.”
Here are a few of our favorite creations of image equity from these artists using the Pixel 6 with Real Tone.
Andy Jackson
In his Creator Labs debut, photographer Andy Jackson examines the importance of chosen family in the lives of “three different LGBTQIA+ talents in different cities.”
Jackson is known for his work capturing Laverne Cox (Daily Standard), Adwoa Aboah (UK Guardian), and others, as well as his editorial featuring the 2021 Fall couture collection by Kerby Jean-Raymond for Pyer Moss that appeared in Metal magazine.
Andy Jackson
Andy Jackson
Kennedi Carter
After capturing the faces of some of the most famous women in the world –like Beyoncé for British Vogue and Olympian Simone Biles for Glamour, photographer Kennedi Carter is now documenting her own transition into motherhood.
“This project has become one dedicated to my family, my lover, and my son,” says Carter.
Kennedi Carter
Kennedi Carter
Mayan Toledano
Photographer and filmmaker Mayan Toledano returns to Mexico City and her series “No Mamés” to document and celebrate shared spaces of the LGBTQIA+ community. By capturing subjects in their bedrooms, Toledano hopes to level the artistic playing field.
“They are letting me in,” she adds, “and I like that equality in how I create the work.”
Mayan Toledano
Mayan Toledano
Micaiah Carter
Photographer and director Micaiah Carter’s series of portraits features British-Nigerian musician and fashion designer muse Oyinda. Carter’s previous work includes Pharrell and the cast of Euphoria for the covers of GQ and The Cut respectively.
Micaiah Carter
Micaiah Carter
Micaiah Carter
Myesha Evon Gardner
In her first Creator Lab project entitled “Home is Where the Honey is,” Brooklyn-based photographer Myesha Evon Gardner focuses her camera on her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Gardner claims the city is falsely maligned by those “with little to no regard for the resilience of its people, rich history, and progressive plans to push the city forward.”
Myesha Evon Gardner
Myesha Evon Gardner
Myesha Evon Gardner
Myles Loftin
For his latest Creator Labs series, photographer Myles Loftin captures heavily tattooed Black subjects. Loftin seeks to document and include in his work “the experiences of queer and black communities.”
Myles Loftin
Myles Loftin
Myles Loftin
Neva Wireko
Canadian-born, New York-based, multi-disciplinary artist, and photographer Neva Wireko created a series of portraits designed to “challenge traditional narratives” and create opportunity for “the viewer to consider the existence of subjects and settings projected towards the future of a new world.”
Neva Wireko
Neva Wireko
Shikeith
Artist and filmmaker Shikeith has created a series of images that explore the “psychological landscape of Black manhood within cosmologies of the blues, queerness, and spirituality.” Subjects were photographed at a nearby church and his work is an extension of his work which explores “the experiences of black men within and around concepts of psychic space.”
Shikeith
Shikeith
