PHOTOGRAPHY’S INFLUENCE IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Often when we learn about the social movements in the 1960s-1970s (such as the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War movement, gay rights movement, environmental movement, and black power movement) photographs are omitted from the curriculum. Photographs of riots, protests, and speeches from those years are powerful additions to our knowledge. They illustrate the reality of the struggle with more emotion than can be extracted from a textbook.
Below from left to right : a mob beats Freedom Riders with the permission of the police (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images), 12 year old Sarah Jean Collins lies in a hospital bed following the KKK bombing of her church (Frank Dandridge/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images), troops survey a burning scene 3 days into the riots after MLK's assassination (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
The Civil Rights Movement
1954 - 1968
Shocking images taken by photographers during the civil rights era exposed the brutality of discrimination and segregation. These images, broadcasted at a national level, helped mobilize people towards the cause and forced the country to confront its racism.
Below you can hover your mouse over each image for a description
USA. New York City. 1962. Black Americans. Bruce Davidson/Magnum
TENNESSEE, UNITED STATES - APRIL 04: Civil rights leader Andrew Young (L) and others standing on balcony of Lorraine motel pointing in direction of assailant after assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is lying at their feet. (Photo by Joseph Louw/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Gay Rights Movement
1961 - 1970
Chicago Magazine, 2017
The gay rights movement started earlier than 1961, but in the United States it was not until the 60s that political action started being taken. The Stonewall riots were a critical, galvanizing force for activism. In the video to the left, a mini documentary has been created about a photographer who captured images from the gay rights movement when not many people were taking photos. His photos are unique and rare because so many photographers avoided LGBT people.
Environmental Movement
1960s - 1970s
The most impactful photographs from the environmental movement were not of protests or marches, but of trees being cut down, oil in water, smog in the air, and most importantly- the Earth. "Earthrise" was the first full-color view of our planet from off of it taken by astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968. Time calls the image "humanity’s first true grasp of the beauty, fragility and loneliness of our world." Other images might not have the same existential crisis triggering power as "Earthrise" but are startling nonetheless.
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
1964 - 1973
Perhaps some of the most influential documentary photographs to ever exist are from the Vietnam War, effectively turning into propaganda for those in opposition of it.
NEAR DA NANG — 1972: A GI on patrol in the jungles near Da Nang, South Vietnam, huddles under a poncho to escape the monsoon rains, 1972. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly)
First Cavalry Division medic Thomas Cole, of Richmond, Va., right, with one of his own eyes bandaged, continues to treat wounded Staff Sgt. Harrison Pell, of Hazleton, Pa., during a Jan. 30, 1966 firefight at An Thi in the Central Highlands between U.S. troops and a combined North Vietnamese and Vietcong force. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)