Vanessa Charlot. Photo by Barbara Kinney
‘We Are Here: Scenes from the Streets’ opens Sept 26 at International Center of Photography
by Marvis Herring
Several photographs of Black women in the wake of George Floyd‘s death taken by University of Mississippi professor Vanessa Charlot have been selected for an international exhibition in New York.
“We Are Here: Scenes from the Streets“ runs from Sept. 26 to Jan. 6, 2025 at the International Center of Photography, an influential institution for photography and visual culture. The exhibition explores 50 years of street photography, capturing the dramatic and everyday moments of public life across the globe.
“I’m excited I can represent this institution from the position of saying that there are people down here that are expansive, that are really thinking about photography, that are thinking about diversity and what that looks like in everyday life,” said Charlot, assistant professor of media and communication in the School of Journalism and New Media.
In 2020, the award-winning photographer spent eight months documenting the streets of St. Louis. Her selected works explore the perspectives of Black women involved in social justice movement work.
Pulitzer Prize finalist and renowned National Geographic contributing photographer Maggie Steber, a friend and mentor to Charlot, called the Ole Miss professor “a brave, committed warrior whose storytelling photographs inform and change us to the point where we cannot look away.”
“Vanessa’s photographs in St. Louis are filled with the sad lament of the death of George Floyd,” Steber said. “I was struck by how deeply her work revealed the ongoing heartbreak of Black communities everywhere.”
The black-and-white collection includes a photograph of Dorothy Williams outside her home in North St. Louis, a predominantly Black community, titled “American Patriot.” Williams’ father, Isadore Banks, was lynched in the 1950s in Arkansas.
Another photograph, titled “Abolitionist,” features 19-year-old Brianna Chandler, who organized plans for young people to demand systemic change in the city.
“When you’re thinking about these huge movements, or just when you’re thinking about street photography, Black women are typically on the periphery,” Charlot said. “In these photographs, Black women disrupt the photographic landscape and become the center.”
The exhibition features 33 other artists from around the world, including Egypt, Hong Kong and Nigeria.
“Charlot’s work and the images of other photographers in the exhibition are intended to shed light and make firm the presence and importance of those who live in service of bringing about necessary social change,” exhibition curator Isolde Brielmaier said. “More so, Charlot captures the importance of visibility and voice.
“Charlot’s works in the exhibition highlight both people as active changemakers and the ways in which we conceive of the street or public space more broadly as stages where social, political and economic transformations are sparked and pushed forward.”
The inclusion of Charlot’s photographs is a reflection of her visual storytelling skills, said Rashad Mammadov, media and communication department chair.
“This recognition by ICP stands as evidence of her impact, and we are thrilled to see her ongoing ability to motivate her students, coworkers and the wider creative community,” he said.
“Her work, which documents the resilience and advocacy of Black women at a pivotal time in 2020, not only demonstrates her remarkable talent for visual narrative but also her deep involvement with matters of social justice.”
