The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has opened "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985," a major survey featuring some 150 images by Black photographers who documented the civil rights and Black liberation movements. Curated by Deborah Willis and Philip Brookman, the exhibition includes works by Doris Derby, John W. Mosley, Ming Smith, and about 100 other artists, capturing both iconic protest imagery and quieter, intimate moments of Black life. The show runs through January 11, 2026.
The exhibition matters because it reframes the role of photography within the Black Arts Movement, showing that Black photographers were not just documentarians but active artists who shaped the movement's aesthetic and political vision. By foregrounding overlooked figures like Doris Derby and including an essay by Angela Davis, the show challenges narrow media narratives and underscores how art and imagination were central to the struggle for liberation. It offers a fuller, more nuanced archive of Black creativity and resistance.