On March 20, the International Center of Photography announced an open call for imagemakers around the world to post and tag imagery of their experiences as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. The hashtag #ICPConcerned was named in recognition of ICP’s founding principle to champion “concerned photography”—socially and politically minded images that can educate and change the world. Confirmed cases had just surpassed 200,000 globally. It had taken over three months to reach the first 100,000 and just 12 days to reach the next 100,000. By March 24 the number had surpassed 400,000. The virus is invisible and its deadliest effects were happening in near isolation. As the confirmed cases in New York City reached 10,000 the number of #ICPConcerned images on Instagram also reached 10,000.
Then, on May 25, George Floyd, a Black man, was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer and millions came out of isolation to gather in anger and defiance of centuries of systemic racism and white supremacy. Thousands of #ICPConcerned images of the demonstrations were uploaded and shared.
Now, ICP has initiated an evolving #ICPConcerned exhibition One thousand images are being chosen by a wide range of ICP staff—curators, administrators, and educators. No one can visit yet, but the process and the installation are being documented and shown online, taking the images back to the worldwide audience that made them. Eventually, the returning public will be able to come see a visual account of this tumultuous era.
Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the International Center of Photography (ICP), New York, in October 2020.