Flashpoint! Protest Photography in Print
Conversation with Olga Yatskevich, Russet Lederman, Lesley A. Martin
January 21, 2025
6–8PM
Join us for a conversation between Olga Yatskevich, Russet Lederman and Lesley A. Martin on occasion of the release of Flashpoint! Protest Photography in Print, 1950-Present, a new anthology from 10x10 Photobooks.
The past seventy-five years have been a time of extreme social and cultural transformations worldwide. Political and social upheaval, often contentious, disorienting and polarizing, is now a daily reality. We live in a world rife with ideological and tribal conflicts. Since its inception, photography has captured defining historical moments, serving as either a tool or a document of protest—or both. Flashpoint! Protest Photography in Print, 1950-Present, does a deep dive into protest photography in print through a global selection of photobooks, zines, posters, pamphlets, independent journals and alternative newspapers.
Edited by Russet Lederman and Olga Yatskevich, this talk will explore the diverse roles and varying aesthetics that photography in print undertakes in its support of resistance. Is it a “tool” conceived through an “aesthetic of urgency” to be used during events as they unfold, as in an anonymously designed poster or ink-stained fliers plastered on street walls? Or an elegantly designed photobook published a year or more later to document a past uprising? Whether outright rage or a more subtle artist-driven commentary, protest photography in print covers all of these formats and sometimes transcends rigid media definitions, as it blurs the lines between what constitutes a book, zine, journal, poster or newspaper.
Olga Yatskevich co-founder of 10x10 Photobooks, is a contributing writer to Collector Daily.
Russet Lederman co-founder of 10x10 Photobooks, is a writer, editor and photobook collector who also edits The Gould Collection.
Lesley A. Martin is the executive director of Printed Matter.