As worldwide actions against systemic racism and police brutality continue—set against the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic that is disproportionately affecting communities of color and worsening inequality—there has been a wave of donations, incisive commentary and moving artwork in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. As in recent weeks, we have collected below a selection of BLM-related work, created by SVA community members.

Dario Calmese (MPS 2012 Fashion Photography) is the first Black photographer to shoot the cover of Vanity Fair. “For me, this cover is my protest,” Calmese told The New York Times. His stunning cover photo of actress Viola Davis is a recreation of The Scourged Back (1863), a portrait of an enslaved man with severe whipping scars on his back. For Calmese, the image is “about rewriting an old story. ‘Not only around slavery, but also the white gaze on Black bodies, and transmuting that into something of elegance and beauty and power,’ he said.”

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