'I want to see how [this image] is perceived in 10 years … I just feel, honestly, like I’m watching a plant grow. I just want to see how the meaning of it will change.'
—Mark Clennon
On 30 May 2020, Mark Clennon (b. 1988) set out to document a peaceful protest in Manhattan. What he captured within Untitled (Today) instantly became an emblem of the moment, coinciding with a strong feeling of uncertainty and frustration after months of quarantine and the uprising against racial oppression worldwide. ‘I spotted a man. I never saw the front of this man’s face. I never spoke to him,’ the artist recalls. ‘I snapped about 10 photos and the first one is the one I used. I kind of waited for him to raise his fist. I had a feeling he would.’ This photograph of a man raising his fist and challenging institutional white power, here symbolised by the American flag protected behind the luxurious Trump facade, soon became an iconic depiction of the Black Lives Matter protest. Clennon writes: ‘I posted the image of the protest at Trump Tower just before 9 p.m. I was just sharing an image that encapsulated how I was feeling about being black in America today. I could tell people were responding to it. People were reaching out to me from Brazil, Germany, Russia, from all over the world … Today it has over 38 million impressions on Twitter alone.’ Untitled (Today) has been featured in TIME Magazine and Netflix’s Strong Black Lens.
Mark Clennon interviewed for ‘How Black Photographers Play A Role In Social Justice’,
Strong Black Lens, ep 3, 2022, Netflix