[HIGHLIGHTS] The problem with the “Shirley card”, the photo developing method that did not take racial diversity into account

In the 1950s, a color-balanced development method was standardized whose model had been Shirley, a white model who, unknowingly, reinforced racism in the lens' gaze for decades. Shirley was thus the image of a quality control that did not allow more options when it came to portraying people.

In the words of Sarah Lewis, professor of Art History and Architecture and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, developing became “ensuring that Shirley's face looked good” in any photograph. The defect is a kind of wild card that hides a wild modus operandi.