A History of Photography in USC Libraries Collections

Gordon Wimpress, Women’s March Poster, January 20, 2018

This image by Gordon Wimpress was taken during the Women’s March in Los Angeles, California on January 20, 2018. This protest took place a year after the first Women’s March, which was in response to the inauguration of Donald Trump. When Donald Trump was elected president, there was a large uproar from his opponents, who didn’t like his misogynistic ways. Even after those initial protests, protesting has become a very common activity in American life, dealing with issues like Black Lives Matter due to the unrest that has spread throughout the country. There is also the fact that the writing on the poster has a Spanish curse word, which ties into another controversy that the president was a part of. When Donald Trump was campaigning for president, he alienated a large group of Latinos in the United States when he discussed having very rigid ideas on immigration and wanting to create a large wall around the United States to keep out Mexicans, many of whom he considered rapists and thieves. This ties well into our curatorial section because it is an image that depicts how our daily life has become synonymous with social unrest and people having to go out into the streets and protest for their rights due to the government not having their best interests at heart. There is also the fact that this image could have been taken by anyone on a regular day with a regular digital camera, making it a prime example of vernacular photography.

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