Solidarity in Photography

Abstract

In this entry, Nicole Schneider is asking which role solidarity plays in possible readings of press photographs connected to the Black Lives Matter Movement. These images are able to engage in and defy assumptions held over others and start to question ostensibly fixed definitions of Blackness and difference. In critically playing with symbolic meanings and different references to Black lives and struggles, they unsettle fixed ideas and offer room for reflection. Thus, they are not per se acts of protest or solidarity but can function as first steps toward recognizing own positions, biases, and involvements that are usually unseen.