Within the frame of a single image lives a lifetime of experience, emotion, and affect. Photographs trap drama and performance, humor and consequence. For Legacy Russell, author of the new book Black Meme: A History of the Images That Make Us, speed and movement—virality—may be the best indicators into how an image speaks.
Platforms like TikTok are increasingly under scrutiny because they are being used as sites of organizing and exchange for and by people of color across many different diasporas. As the economies shift around that space, certain platforms fail to exist or collapse altogether, the question becomes who is that impacting? Generative AI seeks to automate every part of our lives. In Black Meme, you call for royalties and reparations around those issues.