Sarah White, “Raising Black Joy”.
This module contains images that feature the Black body as a catalyst for social, cultural, and political change. The new civil rights movement has gained national and international attention for speaking out against institutional racism in the criminal justice system overall, and physically protesting the questionable, and seemingly unlawful, deaths of Black men and women at the hands of police in particular. It distinguishes itself from the previous civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s by rejecting the norms of heterosexual culture and male leadership, and by adopting an approach to identity politics that highlights the intersections of race with experiences of gender, sexuality, disability, religion, immigration, and environment.
This section uses media from the Internet as well as famous historical photographs and studio and vernacular portraits from the International Center of Photography’s collections to reaffirm the concept that all movements are part of a continuum. ICP’s Daniel Cowin Collection is made up of portraits and group photographs that depict African-American life and culture from before emancipation in the 1860s, through post– Civil War reconstruction, and into the gilded age of the 1930s. These historic images offer an alternative view to the racist depictions of Blacks being produced and distributed by American popular media. The images selected from the LIFE Magazine Collection document the influential leaders and events from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Their aim was the propagation of racial justice by ending segregation, establishing voting rights, and calling attention to the depth of poverty within the Black community in the United States.
Contemporary artists engaged with the new civil rights movement are exploring the representational and political possibilities that digital media have created in recent years. Images can shift between online and physical space, connecting virtual discourse with acts of civil disobedience. In this way, the networked image becomes part of a legacy of media representation that has been instrumental in depicting the resistance to racism in America from abolition up to the present moment of #BlackLivesMatter.
Organized by Kalia Brooks
Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change
January 27 to May 7, 2017
International Center of Photography
250 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
USA
