99U | Jeff Sheng: Don't Ask, Don't Tell & Creativity's Role in Driving Social Change @99u | Uploaded September 2015 | Updated October 2024, 19 hours ago.
About this presentation
For the past ten years, photographer Jeff Sheng has made it his mission to shine a light on issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans through his work. In this 99U presentation, Sheng shares Fearless, a project that highlighted out athletes on high school and college sports teams as well as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a series that profiled closeted members of the armed services while maintaining their anonymity. “These brave men and women were serving our country, going to war, yet they couldn’t be open about who they were,” said Sheng.
As he showcases his incredible portfolio, Sheng shares how important (and difficult) it was to build trust amongst his subjects, and how the tide of social change affected his work’s visibility. “Whatever the creative process, we have a responsibility to the potential of our power… It can’t just be about what brings us fame and fortune.”
Watch more videos here: 99u.com/videos
About Jeff Sheng
Jeff Sheng is a photographer, artist, and sociologist, whose artwork has been internationally exhibited, and has taught as a visiting professor of photography and visual studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and most recently at Harvard University in 2011. He is currently a doctoral Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Stanford University.
Between 2009-2011, his other photography series Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on over 80 closeted service members affected by the government policy known by that same name, was instrumental in providing a face to the issue as part of the repeal debate, as the photographs were seen and published in Time Magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times, CNN, NPR, the BBC, and ABC World News Tonight. A graduate of Harvard University, Jeff also holds an MFA (master of Fine Arts) in studio art from the University of California, Irvine.
About 99U
The 99U delivers the action-oriented education that you didn't get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for making ideas happen.
About this presentation
For the past ten years, photographer Jeff Sheng has made it his mission to shine a light on issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans through his work. In this 99U presentation, Sheng shares Fearless, a project that highlighted out athletes on high school and college sports teams as well as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a series that profiled closeted members of the armed services while maintaining their anonymity. “These brave men and women were serving our country, going to war, yet they couldn’t be open about who they were,” said Sheng.
As he showcases his incredible portfolio, Sheng shares how important (and difficult) it was to build trust amongst his subjects, and how the tide of social change affected his work’s visibility. “Whatever the creative process, we have a responsibility to the potential of our power… It can’t just be about what brings us fame and fortune.”
Watch more videos here: 99u.com/videos
About Jeff Sheng
Jeff Sheng is a photographer, artist, and sociologist, whose artwork has been internationally exhibited, and has taught as a visiting professor of photography and visual studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and most recently at Harvard University in 2011. He is currently a doctoral Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Stanford University.
Between 2009-2011, his other photography series Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on over 80 closeted service members affected by the government policy known by that same name, was instrumental in providing a face to the issue as part of the repeal debate, as the photographs were seen and published in Time Magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times, CNN, NPR, the BBC, and ABC World News Tonight. A graduate of Harvard University, Jeff also holds an MFA (master of Fine Arts) in studio art from the University of California, Irvine.
About 99U
The 99U delivers the action-oriented education that you didn't get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for making ideas happen.
