from the archives

Excerpt from OSMOS Issue 20

KEN GONZALES-DAY

Erased Lynchings

Drawing its title from my Pulitzer Prize–nominated book of the same name, Lynching in the West: 1850–1935, this series considers the transracial nature of lynching in California, from statehood to the last recorded lynching in 1935, as well as other western states and territories outside the historically better-known Southern black lynching areas. Given the broad number of people touched by this history (Asians, Anglos, Blacks, and American Indians), many will be surprised to learn that Latinos (Mexican, Mexican-American, and persons of Latin American descent) were statistically more likely to die of lynching than those of African, Asian, or European decent.

The work included in this series considers, and responds to, this historical erasure though a number of conceptual interventions that interrogate the legacy of lynching and its relationship to photography. Such images once circulated as postcards and view cards and were collected in albums. Today, many of these images continue to circulate through online auctions, antique stores, and archival (and not-so-archival) copy prints. The works reflect upon this forgotten past while inviting the viewer to consider how these legacies of oppression and denial have been transformed within a more contemporary landscape.

- Ken Gonzales-Day