Race and Visibility: How and Why Visual Images of Black Lives Matter

While there is some literature analyzing moving images and their effects relating to Black Lives Matter, there hasn't been an extensive analysis of the still images associated with this movement. This article analyzes one of the most widely circulated and remarked upon photographs from the Black Lives Matter movement in comparison to several other images associated with the movement so as to illuminate the image's rhetorical function and consequence as well as to theorize the role of images in contemporary discourses about race. Specifically, our analysis demonstrates how an image may serve to shift/change the narrative of an emerging movement and of the perception of African American citizens by making visible realities and experiences not otherwise readily seen or articulated.