Sheila Pree Bright
The past informs the present in the work of Sheila Pree Bright, who has been photographing the Black Lives Matter movement since 2014. As an artist who draws connections between today’s young activists and their civil rights forebears, she seemed a natural choice to be among 11 socially conscious artists selected to create murals highlighting Atlanta’s past, present and future in time for the Super Bowl, when the city will be in the spotlight.
She knew she wanted to produce a photo-mural recalling the activism of the 1960s. She began her research and was captivated by a 1963 Richard Avedon photo of Julian Bond, co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.