Angela Chung, Kristina Williams, Tom Robisheaux
Type: Lab
Angela explored the events of the Los Angeles “Riots” of 1992 through the lens of photographic coverage in newspapers at the time. Rather than focusing on attempting to retell the story, her research focused on identifying the common narrative and how it was shaped largely by media at the time. Because images play such a large role in solidifying imagery of events as factual occurrences, it is worth discussing how biases have influenced the production of such images, and how images in turn perpetuate certain ideologies. Framed within the context of the current surges in the Black Lives Matter movement, this project suggests re-evaluating this common public narrative history, not just about the 1992 riots but protests and disturbances for racial justice in general. What sort of myths did photojournalism solidify? Is it possible for there to be a singular, objective telling of the events as photojournalism has tried to do?