Black Lives Matter Images Win Smithsonian Photography Award

Black Lives Matter Images Win Smithsonian Photography Award

Photography as a form of modern art has been a reliable and easily reproducible tool to document events, symbols, moments, and occurrences for future reference. Since the first photographic process was invented in 1826, photography has been etched in the history of human evolution as a monumental development.

Protests and mass movements have been a vehicle for change and radical transformation of human society, and we have had fascinating pictures and images to ensure that the exact flow of events and people involved are not misrepresented or lost to future generations. 

The Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, which sprang after the recording of the death of George Floyd at the knee of officers of the Minnesota Police Department in the US, is an example of one movement that shaped human history and has not been left undocumented or poorly documented. An internet search of these protests will most definitely yield an enormous amount of images, photos, videos, and representational art, with some really mind-blowing artistic photography that captures the essence and gravity of the occasion for social and racial justice.

For the 2021 outing of the prestigious Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest, a Los Angeles photographer, Matt Stasi, has been recognized as one of the winners for the photos he took documenting the Black Lives Matter protests across L.A. in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

Speaking on the tone and raw energy reflecting in his photos, Stasi said he could feel the urgency of the community coming through the lens as he captured the images on the streets last summer.

"Everyone wanted justice for what was going on, what is going on," he said. "It was just powerful to see everyone coming together — that was the one thing that really really stood out."

Stasi recently won recognition for a black-and-white photo he captured of a Hollywood protester named Guy Peel, wearing a mask bearing the words, I can't breathe.

"It was a raw nerve, so I was capturing a lot of anger, a lot of pain after hundreds of years of people being marginalized, and that's an understatement," Stasi said.

This is yet any win for the proponents of the ‘photography is art’ ethos and thus propagating the argument that 'serious' art exhibitions and auctions should include photography and photographers. Aworanka as the pioneer website aggregator of African art and art galleries is already one step ahead of the curve with an array of photography and photographers of African descent on its roll call.

Black Lives Matter Protest
 Black Lives Matter Protest
 Black Lives Matter Protest

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