A US flag decoration in a tree at the R.E. Lee monument at Marcus David Peters Circle. Richmond, VA. 2020

Shall Be Preserved documents the current transitionary time for my hometown of Richmond, Virginia in the United States. The former capital of the Confederacy and historically conservative bastion is now a much more progressive place, evidenced by the response to the murder of George Floyd and last summer’s resulting protests which culminated in the movement to remove old Confederate monuments and imagery finally bearing fruit. According to a study done by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Virginia has the most Confederate memorials and monuments – 283 in total – in the entire country, with the next closest being Georgia at 229. However, by September 2020, Richmond has removed 18 symbols, more than any other city in the U.S. Three of those were removed by protestors last summer, drawing similarities to colonists who pulled down and destroyed British symbols during the American Revolution. The Robert E. Lee statue resides on Monument Avenue in a grassy circle unofficially renamed Marcus-David Peters Circle, after a teacher that was shot and killed by a police officer during a mental health emergency in 2018. The Lee monument itself is the last Confederate statue standing on Monument Avenue and although Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam both decided to remove the statue, the plans have been tied up in court. While being one of the largest and most iconic symbols physically representing Richmond’s Confederate past, the Lee monument and Marcus-David Peters Circle has transformed into a hub for community organizing and local activism. Memorials to other victims of police brutality and killings surround the plinth, with voter registration and bike repair stands being set up throughout the summer alongside community cookouts and barbecues. This turned what was once a symbol and celebration of the Confederacy into a space many Richmonders and tourists would come to hangout at and marvel at the protest art and graffiti that covers it. Although most locals and many others fully support the removal of the Confederate monuments, some Virginians oppose it, claiming that it is erasing history, promoting censorship, and eradicating their heritage. Amanda Chase, a very outspoken and controversial Virginia State Senator, even said it is an “overt effort to erase white history” and is “racially insensitive and racist in itself.” Virginia Senate GOP leaders denounced her statement, calling it “idiotic, inappropriate and inflammatory” while still being against the removal of the monuments. 

Another physical example of the cultural shift and progressive reform in Richmond was the renaming of the Boulevard to Arthur Ashe Boulevard in 2019. Arthur Ashe was a legendary African-American tennis player and civil rights leader born in Richmond who was barred from playing at the white-only tennis courts as a child. His statue on Monument Avenue, unveiled in July 1996, is the only statue on the street that does not depict a Confederate leader. Richmond City Councilwoman Kimberly Gray led the effort to rename the Boulevard and proposed the name change as a show of the progress the city has made toward restoring racial justice and reconciliation. Arthur Ashe Boulevard itself intersects with Monument Avenue which featured a statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson until its removal on July 1, 2020. 

Stonewall Jackson monument. Richmond, VA. 2020

Another feature of Arthur Ashe Boulevard is the American artist Kehinde Wiley’s Rumors of War statue at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The 27-foot tall statue depicts an African-American man with dreadlocks in a ponytail wearing a hoodie, ripped jeans, and Nikes and is presented by the artist as simply an image of a black man depicted heroically. Wiley, the painter of Barack Obama’s portrait that is displayed in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, was inspired to make the work after he visited Richmond in 2016 and “became enamored of the dark legacy of Richmond,” according to Alex Nyerges, the director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts who commissioned the statue. Wiley created Rumors of War as a response to the statue of Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart and initially proposed a statue that would “question, or mock…the reflexive deference those statues have commanded for decades.” These changes show the efforts and opportunities for the city of Richmond to counterbalance its Confederate history and iconography with a more representative landscape that is welcoming to all. 

Wiley’s fascination with Richmond’s Confederate legacy and its proximity to its diverse and progressive population that led to his creating of Rumors of War is similar to the motivations I have in making Shall Be Preserved. Richmond’s reckoning with its heritage is also analogous to the one the United States is currently grappling with. After a summer of civil unrest and the largest protest movement in U.S. history, Americans seem keen to address and confront its ugly past, especially in the fight for racial equality. I felt it important to document the removal of these statues and the overall shift in attitudes towards not only the Confederacy, but many other social and societal issues. In photographing how these spaces have changed throughout these tumultuous times, and especially with the fairly quick nature of some of this progress, I strove to create a visual record of this physical transition and the new history being created. My personal interest in conflict photography also supported my motivation for this project. Like Simon Norfolk and his photos of the landscapes of Afghanistan, I was interested in showing how conflict has shaped the monuments and the environments they occupy. After documenting the protests and riots of the summer, I wanted to take a step back and show how these events have changed the city and its population. 

Doughboy. Stamford, Connecticut. Lee Friedlander. 1973

Another notable inspiration is American photographer Lee Friedlander’s The American Monument, first published in 1976. Friedlander’s 213 photos, mostly taken between 1971 and 1975, are not just isolated images of individual sculptures, but a record of the visual and cultural environment of the time. Friedlander’s work shows these statues and their surroundings, often de-familiarizing them by focusing on the environment rather than the monument itself. His deliberate inclusion of extra details, like the pedestrians and storefronts in Doughboy. Stamford, Connecticut (1973) or the World Trade Center peeking over the treetops in East Coast War Memorial. Battery Park, New York, New York (1974), not only demonstrates the timeless aspect of the work and the preservation of American history but the ongoing relationship between monuments and the sites where they stand. Even the last photograph in the book, Brigadier General Albert Pike. Washington D.C. Now Removed (1972), is evidence of an ever-changing landscape and the role photography can play in preserving the past. Personally, I fully support the removal of these monuments from public display, but I hope some are kept for viewing in museums or other environments with the appropriate context. The Lee monument and Marcus-David Peters Circle is just one example of these oppressive symbols taking on new meaning and I believe simply removing it, never to be seen again, would be a disservice. Regardless of the outcome, I hope these photos help provide an understanding and a record of the complex issues we currently face. While the Confederate monuments serve as symbolic representations of a distant and discriminatory past, the empty bases and new landscapes are opportunities to record a new history, one that acknowledges our transgressions and conveys our desire for growth. Though the removal of racist imagery and memorials is obviously a step in the right direction, there is still a substantial amount of work to be done and documenting these changes is a vital process that will help inform those who are around long after the memorials come down.

You can view the entire Shall Be Preserved photo series here.