All of the photographs in this blog post are on view in our current exhibition, From Pandemic to Protests: Visualizing Social Isolation and Social Injustices through the Davidson College Art Collection. Click the button to view the exhibition online:
Alvin C. Jacobs (American, b. 1974)
Untitled (Charlotte Uprising, Uptown Charlotte, NC, 2016), 2016
16 x 24 in.
Digital Print
Gallery Purchase
The photographs depict protests following the 2016 election of Donald Trump; the 2016 death of Keith Lamont Scott, who was murdered by an African American police officer in Charlotte, N.C.; and the 2014 Millions March in NYC following the murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
This photograph captures the story of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2016. Photography, a means of recording and archiving history, contextualizes and ensures the existence of the story to be readily available. This piece, however, can be easily mistaken as one that has captured the recent BLM movements in the year 2020. The resurgence of the movement that mirrors the 2016 events is only reflective of the demonstrators reclaiming an important question: have we seen change?
The two photographs above were a part of Alvin C. Jacob Jr.’s exhibition, Three Steps Back: A Call to Action, a collaboration between Davidson College’s Theatre Department and Van Every/Smith Galleries. The exhibition was originally presented in Cunningham Theatre Center during the Theatre Department’s production of Facing Our Truth, comprised of six 10-minute plays on the topic of Trayvon Martin, race, and privilege.
Jacobs is a Charlotte-based photographer and an image activist. He began his career as a freelance artist in Chicago, IL, and Charlotte, NC, training briefly at the Art Institute of Charlotte. Jacobs has worked on the front lines of numerous local and national social justice movements, including those in Sanford, FL, Ferguson, MO, Baltimore, MA, and Charlottesville, VA. Photographs like these have been featured in exhibitions at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture, Charlotte, NC; Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte, NC; and Clifford Chance, New York, NY. Jacobs has been commissioned for and collaborated on projects with the NFL, NBA, and NASCAR, and has contributed social commentary via interviews on CNN, HLN, and Fox News networks.
Adrienne Lee ’21