Analysis Of Clarissa Sligh's It Wasn T Little Rock

Clarissa Sligh is known as a visual artist who photographs the change, and transformation of different parts of history. Sligh’s artist book, “It Wasn’t Little Rock,” focuses on her experience with segregation. In her photographs, she incorporates her personal experiences and viewpoints and add layers to meaning by using text, borrowed images and new images.
Sligh incorporates her personal viewpoints and experiences into her work. When Clarissa Sligh was 15 years old, she was the lead plaintiff for a school desegregation case. Her photographs in the photo series, “It Wasn’t Little Rock,” incorporate the idea of the struggle that African American students had to live with each day. Also, there is repetitive use of the red chair which contains

the words, “witness”. The many “witness” chairs show how numerous African American people lost their lives to segregation. Sligh’s personal experiences and viewpoints of the idea of segregation within schools is incorporated into the photo series, “It Wasn’t Little Rock,” in hopes of provoking change to the laws of segregation.
In the photo series, “It Wasn’t Little Rock,” Sligh incorporates text, borrowed images and new imagery to create layers of meaning in her artist book. Firstly, Sligh’s use of text is most evident with the red chair “witness.” Sligh uses the text to add layers to her images by stating the names of people who were killed by segregation. Secondly, Sligh’s use of appropriated images, such as the family portraits and newspaper clippings, are included to add that within the family portraits, African American people are just like normal “White Moderate” families. But in the newspaper clippings, African Americans are viewed as not equal or less than the White Moderates. Lastly, Sligh’s use of new images are added to enhance the idea of how even though laws were passed to try to make the African Americans more equal to the White Moderates, the African Americans were still at a disadvantage. The old pictures layered with the new photographs represent how through the years, nothing has changed with making progress for greater equality between races. In the photo series, “It Wasn’t Little Rock,” Sligh incorporates text, appropriated images and new imagery to create different layers of meaning in her artist book.