n June, Atlanta-based artist Davion Alston published “State of Georgia” as part of Burnaway’s artist column “Mood Ring,” sharing a series of photographs taken at protests across the state this year. The following month, Alston was named a 2020/2021 Working Artist Project (WAP) Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia (MOCA GA). For the magazine, I asked him to speak with Sheila Pree Bright, another Atlanta-based photographic artist and a 2014/2015 MOCA WAP Fellow, whose exhibition #1960Now (on view at Jackson Fine Art through September 19) continues her series documenting protests for racial justice across the United States. The two artists discuss the history of civil rights photography, the dangers and possibilities created by the medium, and how each of them approached making photographs of recent uprisings. Their conversation took place in late August via video chat and has been edited for publication.
