Eyes on the Movement: IMAGES from Bay Area Activist Photographers

Silicon Valley De-Bug's Class Conscious Photographers and Studio Grand present Eyes on the Movement: Images from Bay Area Activist Photographers.

At a critical time in history where racial tensions are at a head, photography is an important tool for radical social change, if it is produced by photographers who are part of the social movements they're documenting, and if their perspective is to expose the abuse of the system, to show how it can be changed, and by who. From immigrants rights, workers' rights, police accountability, to economic justice campaigns, this show features the stories and images of our vibrant social justice movements in the Bay Area -- powered by working class people of color and captured by photographers embedded in these struggles.

Photographers

Brooke Anderson

Brooke Anderson is a former union organizer, now working with Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project to build a grassroots labor movement for climate justice. As an activist photographer, she documents the stories of the unsung worker heroes and heroines fighting to remake our economy to serve people and planet. Her work can be found at movementphotographer.com.

David Bacon

David Bacon is a California writer and documentary photographer. A former union organizer, today he documents labor, the global economy, war and migration, and the struggle for human rights. His latest book, The Right to Stay Home (Beacon Press, 2013). documents forced migration and the criminalization of migrants. A previous book, Communities Without Borders, documents migration through the eyes and words of transnational communities.

Charisse Domingo

Charisse Domingo is a photographer with Silicon Valley De-Bug, documenting communities and the power of everyday people to create change. She is an organizer with the Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project and De-Bug, working with families with loved ones facing charges in the criminal justice and immigration systems to impact the outcome of those cases and transform the landscape of power in the court systems.

Liz Gonzalez

Liz Gonzalez grew up in San Jose and has been passionate about creating change in the community for many years working on issues ranging from worker rights to education and immigration. She is a writer, healer, and photographer and believes that when we better ourselves we will see that reflected in the larger world.

Isabel Gonzalez

Isabel is a photographer with Silicon Valley De-Bug and one of the founders and co-creators of De-Bug's Darkroom, a photography lab for black and white film. She is passionate about her community of San Jose and is a mommy to a wonderful 4 year old son.

Najib Joe Hakim

Najib Joe Hakim is a photographer and photojournalist based in San Francisco. His work has been published and exhibited internationally. He is currently expanding a project, called: Home Away From Home: Little Palestine by the Bay - a multi-media exhibition juxtaposing recorded oral histories with B&W Portraits of the SF Bay Area Palestinian community.

Jean Melesaine

Jean Melesaine is a Samoan American documentary photographer for Silicon Valley DeBug in San Jose and is based in Oakland. Her parents are from the villages of Moamoa and Falealili, Western Samoa.

Abraham Menor

Abraham Menor is a community organizer/worker and photographer based in San Jose, California. With a background in sociology and a love for photography, Menor realized that he can combine the two together. His love for the camera began in the late 90’s. His subject matter was initially graffiti. Menor sought to document the culture surrounding such an art form. Shortly thereafter, he developed a passion to document his daily interactions with people, places, and things. Menor’s goal is to tell stories using his camera.

Karen Ng

Karen Ng is an immigrant and is working as a community advocate at the Asian Law Caucus. She strives to use photography as a tool of empowerment for the immigrant community.

Ronald Orlando

Ronald Orlando is a freelance photographer based in San Jose, CA.

Leopoldo Peña

Leopoldo Peña was born in Michoacán, México and has lived in Los Angeles since 1992. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at University of California, Irvine. He also works as a freelance photographer/language educator and on personal photo projects and spends most of his free time with his son.

Daniel Zapien

Daniel Zapien also known as Ookie or Baylingual. Is a photographer from San Jose Ca.

We are grateful for the support of the Diane Middleton Foundation and the Akonadi Foundation's Beloved Community Fund for helping to make this exhibit possible.