In the past month, I've been reporting on the various camera brands that have been dropping the "master" and "slave" terms since the huge Black Lives Matter movement that surged after George Floyd's death. I can now confirm Leica is also dropping the terms.
Since the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement has gained traction globally, with protests worldwide. The reverberations have been felt in the photographic community as well. I spoke with Nikon and also Canon, who both confirmed that they dropped the terms years ago over the derogatory origins of the terminology.
After speaking with a representative of Leica, I've had it confirmed that they too have now decided to officially drop the terms from use in their camera flash triggering systems, and will be fully realized through their online and e-commerce content by August 10, 2020:
Leica Camera will no longer use the terms 'Master' or 'Slave' in regards to camera flash triggering systems. Moving forward, Leica will use 'Commander' instead of 'Master' and 'Remote' instead of 'Slave' in its connection and triggering. These changes have been reflected on the Leica website, and all Leica Stores, Boutiques, and Dealers will have this reflected in their website listings and e-commerce by August 10th as well.
Leica Camera are dropping the "master" and "slave" terms from their camera flash lexicon
The term slave has its origins in the word slav. The slavs, who inhabited a large part of Eastern Europe, were taken as slaves by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD. Slavery can broadly be described as the ownership, buying and selling of human beings for the purpose of forced and unpaid labour.
How many other camera manufacturers will confirm their either continued use or drop of the terms remains to be seen, but it's important to remember that with the inclusion of Nikon, Canon, and Leica at least, the terms have been dropped continually for the better part of two decades.
Nikon did it like 20 years ago. The master slave technical terms always struck me as a little odd, did the technical term come from slavery of people or was it the other way around?
Sometimes the common use of words 50-100 years ago change and have become offensive...like Brazil nuts.
https://www.the-scientist.com/opinion-old/racist-relics-an-ugly-blight-o...
Or a Brazilian wax
Never had an issue with that...
Only on weekends for me, it’s how I roll
Dave- I agree that performative penance without backing it up with actual action is a hollow and useless response to racism. However I would argue that displaying white supremacist symbols and symbols of slavery in public spaces treat Blacks as inferior and have the function of “putting them in their place” (the actual motivation behind erecting cheap mass produced Confederate monuments during the Civil Rights Movement.) Putting “Slave” and “Master” into a normalized context which diminishes it’s historical evil and harm does effectively treat Blacks poorly today. How does it make an African American student in a mostly white photography class feel when those words are casually thrown around all day during class?
There is no area of the arts that has fully treated women and Blacks equally. However American photography has been far more open and embracing of both Black and women photographers than say the painting world has. That is something that makes me proud of as a photographer and collector of art photography. I personally see this move as honoring that history of photography.
So many from way back. Leica is late to the game. Do your research. Pentax has not used the terms for quite sometime, long before BLM movement, as has many others.
If you continue to say, «How many other camera manufacturers will confirm their either continued use or drop of the terms remains to be seen,» the least you can do is confirm which, if any, still use it. You claim, «I spoke with Nikon and also Canon,» and, «After speaking with a representative of Leica, I've had it confirmed,» then the least you can do BEFORE publishing this article, is either read the manuals of Fujifilm, Olympus, Pentax, and Sony, or speak to them.
This is sensationalised “journalism.” I find that the big problem is NOT the camera manufacturers, but the strobe manufacturers, and the photography educators. Call out the right people.
[EDIT] To the Chinese manufacturers, it would be good to know what the Chinese terminology is, as, any English literature (or device with English menus) which does say, “master/slave,” might be attributable to simplified/rough translations, and not corporate policies.
[/EDIT]
Not this again! Personally, I prefer "transmitter & receiver". But changing something only because people are paranoid offending someone else is totally immature and childish. People need to grow-up and move on. It's a good life if you don't make it unnecessarily complicated.
How about changing something BECAUSE it offends people. This is NOT about how paranoid people are that they may offend someone. That is how racists think. “I have to be careful of what I say because my client might be offended, and I might lose money.”
NO! It is the response to someone saying that they ARE offended, to which the correct response is, “I am terribly sorry. I did not intend to offend. Please pardon my ignorance. Is their an alternate term which you prefer I use?”
Am with you.
You are offended because people DO NOT use a word or phrase?!? You must live your life in perpetual offence.
karim, sadly, fstoppers has some ignorant trash for readers.
The term Transmitter may offend Transexuals, Transvestites and transmitters of Covid-19. TRANS LIVES MATTER :-)
Ha Ha. I agree. It's amazing how the truth can be funny. Everything is getting totally out of hand these days.
It'd be weird if we used terms in photography that were carried over from some aspect of the holocaust, and I don't think anyone would have a problem with them being changed, not through fear of retribution, but because why would you want to continue to use language like that after it had been made apparent to you where it originated from. There's literally no reason to call them master/slave, and the only way I could see someone having an issue with it being changed is if their general opinion is "fuck black people".
I think that master is ok unless used with slave, like if PPI has Master and Slave photographers, that for most people would be wrong.
3 brands down, only another 15-20 to go, that’s plenty more column space to use up
Slow day, it's like when the LA Times needs another story. They run "When will the big one hit, are you prepared?
lol
Am an African but this is really sad. We might as well stop using the terms "Black" and" White" cause it has some derogatory terms in certain statement.
First off who cares what any of the white commentators think. Confederate monuments, Aunt Jemimah, the Confederate flag and slavery does not cause us personal pain and our ancestors were not slaves in modern times. If certain words hurt a group of people we should listen to why it causes them hurt. If those same words are not directed at our identity, our opinions matter little. American slavery and it’s legacy and pain which Black Americans still experience today is a raw open wound.
Nikon ditched the term on their flash units 20 years ago with little fanfare or notice. Nikon users were not confused or unable to use Nikon’s flashes as a result of the name change. Any photographer who is so confused and unable to function because some camera and lighting companies are ditching words that cause hurt, need to rethink their hobby
Did you notice the problem is mostly with the younger generation? And perhaps a few potheads that haven't grown-up yet. It's sad when young people need a "safe place" because they just can't stand the reality of life and take offense to everything. It reminds me of the Alford Hitchcock movie, "Hidden in a Box".
-"Did you notice the problem is mostly with the younger generation?”
Actually not. Older Blacks have felt pain and expressed their own anger and hurt over many of these things. You may now be noticing the younger people because today they are speaking louder and not allowing you to ignore them. In the past many of us have simply ignored and dismissed the same exact complaints from previous generations of Black Americans. The real question is, Cool Cat, why did you NOT notice this before?
Why did I NOT notice this before? Because people like you weren't born yet.
Leica may be a little late on this one issue but Leica’s founder Ernst Leitz believed in social justice and saved many Jews from the Nazis. He would train Jews in the village Leica was headquartered to be camera technicians and send them to NY for “sales.” Once out of the country the technicians never returned to Nazi Germany. Supposedly Leitz also loaned many of these refugees money to open camera stores in the US. One reason NYC has a history of Jewish owned camera stores. Because Leica invented the 35mm camera and their optics were a national pride and important to Germany’s military, the Nazi’s turned a blind eye to Leitz’s efforts. Leitz insisted that his descendants and the company not talk about the Leica Freedom Train until all participants had died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leica_Freedom_Train
This again! It's totally pointless. It doesn't actually help anyone, all it does is make it look like they care!
I totally agree. They only care about the bottom line, profit. They would actually go in the opposite direction if they made more money. Just like politicians, they would sell their soul for money. It had nothing to do with what's right.
Cool Cat, read my post above about Leica and company founder Ernst Leitz who created the Leica Freedom Train risking his life and his company to smuggle as many Jews out of Nazi Germany as he was able. He also loaned and gave money to many of those Jews to set up their own camera business in the United States so they could start a new life. Leica might be late on this one issue but the company has always been anti-racist and put progressive humanistic ideals ahead of profits.
Master slave terms are normal technical terms, is this racism? So we can't eat white, brown of black beans because of the possible racism?
It’s crazy about how being POLITICALLY CORRECT is changing the nomenclature of our society. There are so many words that were part of language and description that are now offensive. There has to be a stop to this insanity . It’s more politically driven as of late than being offensive. These racial divisions at the moment are political ploys to achieve an end result not to create equality. These plots have been dividing the cultures instead of uniting . Uniting is putting aside the past and going into a positive uniting of cultures and acceptance.
Peace y’all
Silly discission, so we can't even order black coffee with white sugar for the sake of rasicm?