Accra Shepp is a New York—based artist and writer. His images have been collected and exhibited globally and he has just completed a Cullman Scholars Fellowship working on his project, The Islands of New York.
"I photographed Occupy Wall Street for a year, from 2011 to 2012. Nearly ten years later, as part of my work documenting the Covid-19 pandemic, I followed the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020. It was never my intent to focus on social justice, and I continue to
make more experimental images. But paying attention to culture— which is to say people—is the work of everyone in the arts, and my intentions had to bend to the reality around me, around all of us. Last month, when students at universities around the country began setting up encampments to protest the war in Gaza, I came to realize that I would need to make this new moment visible. I spent five days photographing the protests at Columbia University, in the eight days between the first wave of arrests there and the next.
I am proud of the students for leading us in confronting our participation in this war. At the same time, it saddens me that the culture of surveillance has frightened us, frightened those who stand up to be heard yet are afraid to be seen. As someone who sees for a living, I would make visible all who stood up, particularly those who stood up for peace and against violence. It is a terrible paradox. Those who could not participate in the publication of their images today have acknowledged to me how much they have to lose: there have been firings, suspensions, expulsions, even death threats. Yet they allowed me to photograph them and trusted me. For now their images have to remain private, but they will be seen another day."
