Leica is adding Devin Allen to its roster of ambassadors, bringing on board a Baltimore photographer whose work focusing on protests has been twice featured on the cover of TIME magazine, having been told in the past by Fujifilm that his work was not a good fit.
Allen tweeted the news, expressing his pride at working with such a prestigious manufacturer famed for its use by photojournalists. Local news channel WMAR Baltimore ran a short feature on Allen and the new partnership.
Allen’s photograph of protests following the death in police custody of Freddie Grey appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in 2015, and has since circulated again on social media following the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Allen says that, shortly after the TIME cover, a representative from Fujifilm told him that the photographs were “negative” and “did not fit with the brand.”
Notably, Fujifilm U.S.A.'s head of marketing has since changed and the brand recently announced a new initiative that looks to completely restructure its ambassador program. Fujifilm writes: “We believe that having a diverse range of ambassadors is important and expect these changes to lay the foundation for how we will continue to offer opportunities to image makers from our community for generations to come.” More changes to the line-up of X Photographers is expected in the coming months.
Lead image by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona.
I know Leica are expensive, but I am consistently impressed by their support of photography.
Yes!! I've been following Devin since his first Time cover. This is so well deserved. After he shot his first cover, he won a grant to start photography educational programs for Baltimore youth, also went on to be an ambassador for Under Armour and has some wonderful images from those campaigns. This is major!