Newly launched in support of Black Lives Matter, the initiative aims at collaborating with various artists to directly support and provide funds for selected organizations. “We want to show the power that artists/photographers have as a collective force. During these times we know it can be tough to see where our power as artists lay in making a difference and where we hold the most influence, so we thought creating a collective site to sell prints to raise money was the perfect solution.
“We want people to discover new photographers, get amazing art, all while directly supporting amazing organizations,” it reads. From Inner-City Arts to the Equal Justice Initiative and The Okra Project, Don’t Back Down! is planning on continuing selling prints throughout the year and supporting different organizations each time.
Similarly, See In Black is another collective of Black photographers investing in Black visibility. “Through the sale of highly-curated prints from Black photographers,” they write, “we raise funds that support five key pillars of Black advancement: civil rights, education/arts, intersectionality, community building, and criminal justice reform.”
Compelled by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, David McAtee, Tony McDade and many other Black people at the hands of law enforcement, Joshua Kiss and Micaiah Carter, founders of See In Black, created a collective of Black photographers to dismantle white supremacy and systematic oppression.