Photography

A+C story by............................................. Patrick Mainelli PHOTOGRAPHY photography by......................... design by........................................... Bill Sitzmann Derek Joy EYEING THE FUTURE FRAM IN G THE PRESENT, PHOTOGRAPHER ANDRÉ SESSIONS JR. CAPTURES THE MOMENTS OF A MOVEMENT

I TRY TO LOOK at things not just for what they are now, but for what they will be—what they can become,” said Omaha photographer André Sessions Jr. Sound advice, it seems, not just for the photographic eye, but for all of us in search of a path forward on the ever-shifting ground of 2020.

As an artist and documentarian, Sessions’ talent is emerging in a moment in desperate need of fresh eyes. His poised-yet-vibrant photos from the many rallies and protests in support of the Black › Lives Matter movement over the last several months are some of the most poignant local documents of the uprising. .....................................................................

A+C You look at early photos of “ PHOTOGRAPHY Fred Hampton or Medgar Evers .................................................................................................................................................... and in the moment they were just living and doing what they I were passionate about, but 60 years later those images are so powerful because of what the person has done. -ANDRÉ SESSIONS JR. t’s great to have the documentation because it’s recorded history,” he said. “We didn’t know it originally, but this has become the biggest sustained protesting movement in history, all around the world.” Sessions’ work depicting protesters and police squaring off on 72nd and Dodge streets following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis appeared in print this summer in Th e New Territory. Th e Missouri-based quarterly is committed to presenting a fresh understanding of life in .................................................................................................................................................................................. the lower Midwest. Five years later, it’s clear Sessions is still taking this lesson to heart. Beyond his photography work, he is fi nding numerous

Katie Young Foster, creative director with New Territory ways to fi ght for justice. Currently, he is involved in the develnoted, “With deft framing and a keen sense of timing and opment of three diff erent nonprofi ts in pursuit of greater racial perspective, Sessions captured movement—and a moveand economic equity in Omaha. ment—in a way that communicates both story and history.” In a moment when so many new initiatives are coming into being, Sessions and his fellow organizers are advocating for concrete

Sessions’ recent work makes clear that he doesn’t hesitate action: creating community gardens, organizing neighborhood to put himself in the middle of the action. Gabrielle cleanups, and providing personal hygiene products and cosmetic

Gaines Liwaru—educator, social change artist, and care for low-income high schoolers. longtime mentor to Sessions—observed that he is temperamentally well-suited to putting a careful frame on “Growing up, I can relate,” Sessions said. “You don’t feel like going moments that sometimes lean toward chaos. to school if you don’t smell good. You get bullied and picked on if your clothes are dirty. So a lot of times, my attendance was horrible

“He’s got a demeanor about him, a mannerism,” because being poor, I would make up reasons for staying home, just

Gaines Liwaru said. “As a spectator, he can move so I didn’t have to go to school with dirty clothes.” fearlessly. He can be very quiet, but the role of being behind the camera is critical for the way his Sessions has also worked as a communications intern with North mind works.” Omaha nonprofi t Th e Union for Contemporary Art for nearly a year. Th at work has included photographing the organization’s many com

“I go into [protests and rallies] with a diff erent munity programs and producing a fi lmed virtual tour of their Undesign frame of mind,” Sessions said. “I’m always thinkthe Redline exhibit, exploring the roots of systemic housing inequality. ing of moments as being potentially historical. I’m thinking of images from the civil rights era and “Everything is part of a bigger chain for the greater good,” Sessions noted. the early days of Black Panther Party, and how “All this work goes hand in hand, getting this all recorded for the future. powerful those are. I want people to have that I look at [the intersection of] 24th and Lake; in 10 years we’ll look back same sense of awe that I did, looking at these at where it all started. We might see this whole area as the cornerstone of images from more than 50 years ago.” change. Th ere’s just so much that needs to be remembered.”

Th at sense of awe took fi rm root during a 2015 high school trip retracing the historic 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Birmingham. Th anks to the leadership of Gaines Liwaru and her husband Sharif Liwaru (then the president of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation), Sessions and 24 other Omaha Public School students gained a fi rsthand appreciation for many of the historic ent moment—the fl eeting snap of a shutter—where the past and future are

locations of the civil rights movement.

Gaines Liwaru explained, “What we wanted to drive home was the fact that, in order to move forward and really fi nd your purpose and passion and know your mission in life, you need to explore sacrifi ces of ancestors who made a huge impact by putting their life on the line, trying to create a more sustainable presence in

“[Sessions] gets that he’s been blessed with some insights,” Gaines Liwaru said. “He is under 25 years old and he knows that it’s beyond time to get people to wake up and not keep sweeping things under the rug. André knows that as African Americans, we are already at a systemic disadvantage from fi nding a path to let our talents fl ourish. Th e way he humanizes these folks he documents, he celebrates something special about who that person is and where they are at now in their journey—one face of many in what some might consider Black America.”

Like all great recorders of history, Sessions recognizes that it’s in the presAfrican American life.”

most alive.

“You look at early photos of Fred Hampton or Medgar Evers and in the moment they were just living and doing what they were passionate about, but 60 years later those images are so powerful because of what the person has done,” Sessions refl ected. “I look at some of my images…I know we can look back years from now and really see the power then. Th at’s when we’ll recognize this was just the beginning.”

For more information, visit asessionsphotography.com and follow Sessions on Instagram at @epicandre.