This exhibition assembles a selection of photobooks from the Cornell Library that function as protests, from passionate cries for social justice to resistance to the impositions of everyday life. Diverging from the explicit imagery and political messaging typical of protest photography, which tends to emphasize collective trauma over individual resolve, this exhibition foregrounds the fundamentally personal and passionate roots of dissent.

Resistance Is Personal: The Photobook as Protest was curated by the students in the Fall 2021 Curatorial Practicum (ARTH 4110/6010), co-taught by Kate Addleman-Frankel, the Gary and Ellen Davis Curator of Photography, and Andrew Moisey, Assistant Professor and Frederick M. Rosevear ’64 and Joyce A. Yelencsics Rosevear ’65 Faculty Fellow in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies.

The exhibition is supported by the Melissa Rubel ’85 and Matthew Rubel Family Fund for Photography, Education, and Engagement at Cornell University.