ABSTRACT
Activist photography is used to foreground human rights issues and support social movements. The Internet has transformed the way photography is used to communicate and mobilise civic action. Photography has been used as an agent for change ever since: shaped by social documentary and photojournalism, which flourished from the 1930s, and invigorated by the strident approach that characterised this genre in the postwar era, by photographers like Danny Lyon, a campaigner for the US Civil Rights movement. Today, activist photography might be made independently or on commission, circulated in marketing campaigns or by protest movements, displayed in art galleries or on the street. Although not all photographs that communicate social injustice are made with activist intent, the majority of images that act as a call to action fall under the categories of documentary or photojournalism.
