Misan Harriman found fame in the photography world with a black and white portrait of a young activist demonstrating at a Black Lives Matter protest in London. After going viral on social media, this poignant picture is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s on Oct. 7.
The black and white portrait shows hockey player Darcy Bourne holding a placard reading “Why Is Ending Racism a Debate?”
“It’s a question that makes all of us reflect on why we haven’t asked ourselves this question sooner,” the British photographer, Misan Harriman told The Guardian.
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The shot quickly became one of the defining images of the Black Lives Matter movement on social media, where it was shared by personalities such as Martin Luther King III, Lewis Hamilton, Dina Asher-Smith and British Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Edward Enninful.
The shot is part of a series of black and white images of British protesters who took to the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, United States.
The portraits inspired Edward Enninful to enlist Misan Harriman to shoot the prestigious cover of British Vogue’s September edition. He is the first black male photographer to shoot the magazine’s cover since it was founded in 1916.
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The Misan Harriman “Why Is Ending Racism a Debate?” print is currently valued at £3,000 to £5,000 (around $3,869 to $6,449 or P188,000 to P313,000) by Sotheby’s, where it will go under the hammer in the “Photographs” auction.
Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Anthony Nolan blood cancer charity, a British nonprofit working in the areas of leukemia and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. IB
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