Edited for Wheelhouse Creative / #ICPConcerned Global Images for Global Crisis is an evolving exhibition, now open to the public through December 31 2020, Essex Street, NYC

“On March 20, the International Center of Photography announced an open call for imagemakers around the world to post and tag imagery of their experiences as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. The hashtag #ICPConcerned was named in recognition of ICP’s founding principle to champion “concerned photography”—socially and politically minded images that can educate and change the world. 

Photojournalism and documentary pictures sit with staged and more metaphorical photographs. Amateur smartphone pictures are being uploaded alongside the work of professional imagemakers. A whole range of emotions is present: anger, despair, loss, confusion, frustration, boredom, loneliness, strength, and resolve. Data shows the virus disproportionally affects people of color and those who are otherwise marginalized and disadvantaged. Everyone is in the same storm, but not in the same boat.  

In June, ICP initiated an evolving #ICPConcerned exhibition in its largest gallery space. One thousand images are being chosen by a wide range of ICP staff—curators, administrators, and educators. Photographers are being contacted, and prints made in the gallery space. For a time, no one was able to visit but the process and the installation were documented and shown online, taking the images back to the worldwide audience that made them. Now, the returning public will be able to come see a visual account of this tumultuous era.

The number of photographs in the show heads toward one thousand, and so far, represents submissions from over 60 countries. Images responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and in support of Black Lives Matter expose the effects of corporate greed, mass unemployment, ecological crisis, and deep fear about the future.  What we interpreted as “normal” pre-pandemic is being challenged by what we have learned about the interconnectedness of our problems and the interdependence of our lives.”

https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/icpconcerned-global-images-for-global-crisis

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