Artist as Activist

The relationship between these two articles is interesting as they both highlight the role art can have in politics.

In reading Campbell’s article it shows the effects the media has in relationship to social change. This is highlighted in the article on page 57. Where through the reproduction of images of Emmets Till in a black-owned newspaper caused an outcry within the black community, this anger helped became part of the force behind the lead-up to the civil rights movement in the late 1950’s. In this text Campbell highlights the power of public awareness for a cause. In this case public awareness was created through photographs that were of a graphic nature. As a way to highlight the horrors which some people were facing. The photographs, a mutilated body, bought the realities of slavery home for many people and inspired action and social change within a community. Campbell suggests that Images that are of social significance to a wide audience (whether they are pleasing or otherwise) should be displayed to a wide audience.

In contrast to Campbell’s style of highlighting the divisions between groups of people and their effects when certain events are highlighted through the media, through imagery and photography. Benjamin discusses the relationship of the camera is a tool to change the reaction of the masses towards art, (59) and how individual response is determined by the attitudes of a mass audience. This shows the importance that public awareness has in relation to an individual response. (59) Art is a form of self-expression and a way of expressing the frustrations of life. It is extremely important for artists to get involved with work of a political nature as it causes discussion and social change.


Campbell, David. “Horrific Blindness: Images of Death in Contemporary Media.” Journal of Cultural Research. Vol 8, Number 1, January 2004. Pp55-74

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Reprinted in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas Kellner eds, Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Pp. 48-70