A new photo album traces the pioneer movements of America in the late 1960s and early 1970s.When I attended a workshop organized by Students for a Democratic Society at Princeton University in 1967, I had no idea the impact it would have on the rest of my life» writes the American photographer Bev Grant in the album “Bev Grant: Photography 1968-1972” which was recently published by Osmos Books. “Tthe theme of the workshop was women’s emancipation. It was an awakening, the dawn of a consciousness, that gave me the framework to understand my life as well as a path that I continue to follow».

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As a member of Newsreel, a New York filmmakers’ collective, Bev Grant found herself, at the turn of the 1970s, at the forefront of the radical Left in America, working with the Young Lords Party, the Black Panther Party and the Poor People’s Campaign as well as initiatives from across the Women’s Liberation Movement. The movements of the 1960s changed the political, cultural and social landscape of the US, helping efforts to give and protect constitutional rights to all Americans. Thus began what are known as the Culture Wars; a dividing line easily visible today when many freedoms that were in the recent past a given are now being demanded again.

At that time, when the printed press was still dominant in the mass media, photography was instrumental in both the dissemination and politicization of social struggles. With her camera in hand, Bev Grant focused on telling these stories with a holistic approach, incorporating the role that women, the elderly and children played in actions of solidarity and protest.