Emmett Till / America 1955
Date1990
Artist
Donald E. Camp
(American photographer, born 1940)
MediumGlass mirror with liquid light and sun baked acrylic
Dimensions48 × 36 in. (121.9 × 91.4 cm)
frame: 49 3/4 × 37 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (126.4 × 95.9 × 6.4 cm)
frame: 49 3/4 × 37 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (126.4 × 95.9 × 6.4 cm)
Credit LineAcquisition Fund, 2020
Object number2020-63
On View
Not on viewCollections
ClassificationsPHOTOGRAPH
Label TextDonald E. Camp vividly recalls Emmett Till’s brutal murder in 1955. Till was visiting his relatives in Mississippi when he was lynched after an accusation that he had whistled at a white woman. Mamie Till Mobley, Emmett Till’s mother, insisted on an open-casket funeral so that the violent treatment of his body, beaten beyond recognition, would be witnessed by the more than 50,000 people who attended the service. Camp’s powerful composition pairs a photograph of Till—taken from a portrait with his mother—with an image of the United States flag. Camp invites us to consider the rights supposedly afforded to American citizens and the severe, and often deadly, injustices that exist in this country.
