sage on their shirt, we may feel we know
more about them than we actually do.
These are “anonymous portraits” that
ask just what kind of information is necessary to make a portrait.
On the streets, t-shirts become a part
of the cultural, political and social issues that have an impact on our everyday lives. In the early months of 2012,
the Los Angeles Times ran an article
describing how the Trayvon Martin
protest t-shirt became a staple at rallies: “It’s difficult to think of another
item of clothing more representative of
the nation’s twitchy zeitgeist in April
2012. Sometimes it seems as though the
PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
old-fashioned medium of cotton has
done as much as the Internet to spread
the memes associated with the tragedy
through the country—and the world.”
In the early 70s, I was a student activist and participated in rallies to
protest the Vietnam War. We made
t-shirts and posters with the saying,
“Hell no we won’t go.” Since then, I
have observed messages on t-shirts
and have always felt they had a special place in the bottom of our drawers, where we could remember what we
once cared about — and maybe still do
— when we pull out that
special shirt to wear that day.