"While Derby's photograph of a child dreaming of play is resonant for its tender simplicity, this era was marked by very different images of life in Mississippi, from the indelible photos of the open-casket funeral of Emmett Till in Chicago in 1955 to the iconic images of the 1963 lunch counter sit-ins in Jackson. Photojournalistic images spanning more than a decade covering protests, demonstrations, and demands for justice became trenchant reminders of the social and political tumult of the time."
"This juxtaposition of unrest and stillness is one of multiple focal points of "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985"at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (on view through January 11, 2026). The exhibition, featuring some 150 images and works of art, is a survey of Black photographers who documented the civil rights and Black liberation movements and imaged civil rights leaders, equality workers, activists, and the constellation of musicians, artists, intellectuals, poets, writers, and filmmakers whose work catalyzed and sustained the Black Arts Movement."
Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985 is on view at the National Gallery of Art through January 11, 2026, and features some 150 images and works of art. The exhibition surveys Black photographers who documented the civil rights and Black liberation movements and imaged leaders, equality workers, activists, musicians, artists, intellectuals, poets, writers, and filmmakers central to the movement. Photographs functioned both as documentary records of protests, demonstrations, and demands for justice and as an aesthetic practice shaping ideas of Black liberation, beauty, and power. The show was curated by Deborah Willis with Philip Brookman and includes tender, everyday moments alongside trenchant images of unrest.
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