Q: Going beyond diversity of photographers, how do you address representation in mass media, especially of people of color or marginalized communities?

A: It doesn’t really matter what you’re photographing, make sure that you do it with respect and with dignity. It might sound that I have problems with white press and photographers coming to our country and taking pictures. I don’t.

What I do have problems with is them having a monopoly on my story. But my point of view needs to be challenged just as much as everyone else’s. I suffer from the same blind spots that other people do. I also have biases and prejudices and they need to be questioned.

Plurality within the media is what gives it that richness. But having said that, I think coming back to being able to be respectful of the people around you, and that really is where the diversity comes in because often the stories are about people who are in a particular situation and a particular point of view in a particular crisis perhaps, and someone who knows them, understands them, empathizes with them, is far better placed to tell that story. And it is that empathy that you bring in that makes it unique.

Because at the end of the day, it is the person who holds the narrative who determines what the story is about. And we as photographers are those other people who hold that narrative. We are in a very powerful position. The onus is upon us to ensure that the story that we tell is respectful, is authentic, is what tells the story as it should be said, and does it with dignity. That should be our guiding mantra. Not what some other great photographer has done.

Q: Tell us about your legal case.

A: One of the things we were very concerned about was that a lot of people were getting disappeared and when they came out they said nothing. And some of these were our friends and we wanted to find out, and my partner and I decided we would make this a project where we try and find out what happened to people when they disappeared.

I didn’t realize I was going be the guinea pig and find out for myself.

Initially there were road accidents. A lot of students came out into the streets protesting. An Al Jazeera journalist asked me ‘Why such an outcry over road accidents?’ The point is, road accidents wasn’t the point, there was a lot of anger over a whole range of things happening, and this was the valve that let it through. And the students came out into the streets in protest.