With a focus on conveying anti-Black violence through photographs, Zora J Murff’s work is inspired by how images function as social objects.
Some of his projects have focused on the juvenile criminal justice system, redlining in North Omaha and points of extreme anti-Black violence.
“Thinking about how those particular histories connect with police violence against Black individuals that we see sort of unfold in surveillance footage today,” says Murff, assistant professor of art at the University of Arkansas (UARK). “That body of work tries to use photography to connect those things. Looking at these different types of anti-Black violence that have been perpetrated throughout history, how do we understand that through images?”
He has found that his work prepared him for the current conversations around racial reckoning within the United States after continuous acts of police brutality.
However, he has struggled to grapple with being called upon during this time to speak to that violence.
Murff has also found it challenging to be Black in academia.
“These environments were very much not crafted for Black people to thrive and survive in them,” he adds. “This being a sort of a crucial, pivotal moment, kind of asking ourselves, ‘Are we going to use this moment and all of these conversations that we are having now that we were not having before to produce actions towards legitimate change? Or is it just going to be more lip service?’”
