Lee Shulman and Omar Victor Diop: An Act of Presence

IN IMAGES

Artist Omar Victor Diop and Lee Shulman, founder of The Anonymous Project, join forces in “Being There”, an exhibition at Les Rencontres d’Arles Festival where familiar, cheerful images are modified to expose the reality of racial segregation.

By Gaia Squarci. Artwork by Lee Shulman and Omar Victor Diop, courtesy of the artists.

Originally shot in 1950s and 1960s North America, the photographs depict holidays, road trips, birthdays, and everyday leisure, but, by excluding a substantial part of society, they hide a reality of racial tension and civil rights struggle.

In “Being There”, artist Omar Victor Diop is inserted into the same archival scenes, becoming part of gatherings where the presence of a Black man would have been both unlikely and unwelcome at the time. He inhabits these historically segregated spaces nonchalantly, often smiling at the camera, his amused defiance cutting against the weight of the subject matter.