Finding the Hidden Gems of the Modern Photography World

One student's vision is bringing focus to a group of photographers who are sometimes left out of the picture. James Wang, a senior majoring in statistics and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, decided to merge two passions - machine learning and photography - for his Quantitative Social Science Scholars project to fill what he considered to be a gap. "There is a shock of recognition when you find an artist who speaks about something with their art that you care about," said Wang. "I have always been drawn to creative [projects,] and I wanted to find an overlap between the visual arts and my technical classes." Leveraging a concept developed by the Black List , Wang and his collaborators created the Silver List , a program aimed to raise the visibility of diverse, high-quality and otherwise-overlooked photographers. A Feb. Vanity Fair article featured the Silver List's debut. An Artistic Seed Is Planted.