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    Tyler Shields

    Uploaded by

    Jon Vogt
    The document discusses Tyler Shields' photography series "Historical Fiction" which features unsettling images that reference atrocities against African Americans and relate to the Black Lives Matter movement. One image depicts a black man lynching a Ku Klux Klan member, and another shows two black businessmen stabbing a restrained white police officer with an American flag. The images sparked both support and backlash when released on Instagram. While the photos bring attention to issues of racism and police brutality, the document argues they could have been more effective as activist art if accompanied by a clear statement of Shields' position on recent related events.

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    Tyler Shields

    Uploaded by

    Jon Vogt
    80 views3 pages
    The document discusses Tyler Shields' photography series "Historical Fiction" which features unsettling images that reference atrocities against African Americans and relate to the Black Lives Matter movement. One image depicts a black man lynching a Ku Klux Klan member, and another shows two black businessmen stabbing a restrained white police officer with an American flag. The images sparked both support and backlash when released on Instagram. While the photos bring attention to issues of racism and police brutality, the document argues they could have been more effective as activist art if accompanied by a clear statement of Shields' position on recent related events.

    Original Description:

    A paper on activism

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    The document discusses Tyler Shields' photography series "Historical Fiction" which features unsettling images that reference atrocities against African Americans and relate to the Black Lives Matter movement. One image depicts a black man lynching a Ku Klux Klan member, and another shows two black businessmen stabbing a restrained white police officer with an American flag. The images sparked both support and backlash when released on Instagram. While the photos bring attention to issues of racism and police brutality, the document argues they could have been more effective as activist art if accompanied by a clear statement of Shields' position on recent related events.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    80 views3 pages

    Tyler Shields

    Uploaded by

    Jon Vogt
    The document discusses Tyler Shields' photography series "Historical Fiction" which features unsettling images that reference atrocities against African Americans and relate to the Black Lives Matter movement. One image depicts a black man lynching a Ku Klux Klan member, and another shows two black businessmen stabbing a restrained white police officer with an American flag. The images sparked both support and backlash when released on Instagram. While the photos bring attention to issues of racism and police brutality, the document argues they could have been more effective as activist art if accompanied by a clear statement of Shields' position on recent related events.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Tyler Shields

    JC Vogt

    The Black Lives Matter movement is an international organization that started in

    the Summer of 2013 when the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin shocked the nation.

    After Zimmermans acquittal, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter began to spread to the

    masses. Founded by three black community organizers, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi

    and Alicia Garza, the group set out to promote awareness of the inequality and still

    existent oppression that was seeping through the African American community. Later in

    August of 2014, the Black Lives Matter Movement organized its first in-person protest

    after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. The protest gained over 500 members

    of the community to join in the non-violent demonstration, and the protest has since

    become recognized national as a symbol of defiance.

    The Black Lives Matter movement is heavily influenced by the African-American

    Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s, and currently referred to as a new civil

    rights movement thats defending against the oppression targeted towards African

    American citizens. Using this idea for inspiration, Tyler Shields, an American born and

    Los Angeles-dwelling photographer, created a series of photographs that shocked and

    fueled and anger felt by recent injustices. Featured in his most recently series Historical

    Fiction, these images with ties to the Black Lives Matter are unsettling yet potent. One

    image features a nude black man in a forest-surrounded lake lynching a figure in a Ku


    Klux Klan uniform, a shocking yet ironic twist on the atrocities that occurred in the late

    1800s and early 1900s. Another image in the series depicts two black businessmen

    stabbing a restrained white police officer with the United States flag, a play on Stanley

    Gormans Soiling of Old Glory in which a white teenager is seen threatening to stab a

    black protestor with an American flag. The reversed rolls as well as the introduction of

    police men speaks to the brutality and excessive violence these officers have

    demonstrated in recent events. Illustrating the disrespect shown towards the African

    American community in the middle of the 20th century, these photographs strike

    shockingly close to the reality of today as the lives of many Americans are still

    considered trivial due to a difference in skin pigmentation, and while Shields doesnt

    directly refer to his art as a form of activism, the content and timing of these images

    come to disagree.

    The photographs were released separately, the Klansman lynching image

    appearing on its own, soon followed by the rest in the collection, and the response was

    immediate. The photos amassed over ten thousand likes on Instagram in just minutes,

    and articles promoting the message of the images began to spread. The Daily Beast, a

    popular and modern news source, interviewed Shields about his motives behind the

    images, as well as the general response to the photographs, where he touches on how

    mixed the publics reactions were. A large majority of the photographs viewers were left

    in awe, seemingly shocked upon seeing such a harsh reminder of how horrific the

    countrys past has been. Others, however, were offended, threatening the photographer

    for recreating such a controversial image. However, regardless of how much support

    and backlash the image received, I believe that the message couldve been supported.

    The series, while shocking, didnt have much of a personal backing, and while many
    could assume Shields disgust with the recent events, there was no verbal recognition or

    condemnation to them. As a result, the images were seen as satirical representations of

    Americas past, and while applicable to the Black Lives Matters organization, they dont

    fulfill the role of activist art as well as they could have, like if they were backed with a

    personal position.

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