Making Images and Making Power with Consent

'Making Images and Making Power with Consent', starting in late April. I am launching an ongoing written interview series that revisits portraits I made during my years as a commercial photographer.

This is not a nostalgia project. It is an accountability project for creatives.

I will be speaking with people who trusted me with their image in the name of creativity, and revisiting what that exchange meant. Not just aesthetically, but ethically. We will talk about bodies, identity, representation, consent, collaboration, exploitation, and the quiet power dynamics that can shape every creative production, even when everyone involved has good intentions.

Would they do it again? Would they do it differently? Would I?

The creative world often talks about “vision” and “the work,” but rarely talks with equal honesty about the systems behind the work. Who holds power? Who takes risks? Who gets protected? Who gets paid well? Who is replaceable? Who is expected to be grateful?

That gap matters because creative industries are not separate from the wider economy. They mirror the same structural issues we see in supply chains: invisible labor, uneven bargaining power, unclear accountability, and incentives that reward speed and output over safety and care.

This series is my way of putting language to what many people feel but do not name.

Why am I doing this?

Because I believe sustainable work is not only about materials and climate strategy. It is also about people. About labor conditions. About how we collaborate. About the governance of power inside teams. About building cultures that are safe enough to tell the truth.

Years ago, after more than two decades photographing thousands of people, I hit a wall. Something in me stopped connecting with image-making the way it used to. I began questioning the industry. The norms we accepted. The stories we told ourselves to keep working. The ways we separated “art” from impact.

That questioning led me into years of studying creative operations, leadership, inclusivity, and ethical production. I eventually recognized it as part of a larger field: sustainable management. The kind that treats harm as a design flaw, not a personal failure.

My perspective comes from three places: mindfulness practice, lived experience navigating sexism and assault in creative environments, and a deep commitment to end-to-end sustainability in fashion and production. At the core, it is one throughline: protecting people and planet by changing the system, not just the story. Keep an eye out here and at my Instagram @christinetaylorcreative.