Gallery Talk - RYAN VIZZIONS: From Standing Rock To Minneapolis

  

                                       

Ryan Vizzions: Faces of Fascism, Minneapolis, January, 2026

On July 4, 2026, our nation will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence amid the erosion of civil rights, human rights, and democratic norms. Monroe Gallery presents a special Artist Talk in conjunction with the current exhibition "America The Beautiful".

In September of 2016, Ryan Vizzions traveled from Atlanta, Georgia to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock NoDAPL movement. Bringing his camera with him, but not intending to be a media source, Vizzions soon found himself using social media to reach over half a billion people with his documentation of events unfolding over the months and helped bring awareness around the world to the movement.

In late 2020 Vizzions embarked on a long term, multi-year project traveling and photographing across the United States to create a photography book documenting all 50 states. Vizzions documented "Operation Metro Surge" in January, 2026 by ICE in Minneapolis involving roughly 3,000 federal agents, leading to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti. His phootograph of a masked ICE agent appeared as a full-page spread in the February 1 edition of The New York Times Opinion section.

Vizzions has contributed considerable time to photographing and archiving the street memorial of Renee Good.



Thursday, July 2, 2026

Starting promptly at 5:30 pm. Seating is limited and live on Zoom

RSVP essential to info@monroegallery.com or 505 992 0800

Zoom registration here

The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated: Leila Navidi’s Photograph as a Defining Image of Resistance to Trump’s ICE Regime

 Via Reading The Pictures

February 23, 2026

Heavily armed, masked federal immigration agents face a cluster of neighborhood residents filming them with their phones during an ICE operation that resulted in a car accident in St. Paul in January 2026. Leila Navidi/Minneapolis Star Tribune

A spontaneous ICE encounter on a St. Paul block becomes a rare picture of practiced solidarity—and a case study in how images can answer federal power.

By Michael Shaw

Leila Navidi’s photograph for the Minneapolis Star Tribune shows St. Paul neighbors on a Cathedral Hill sidewalk on February 11, 2026, standing shoulder to shoulder with their phones raised as militarized ICE agents turn away.

What began as a spontaneous response to a high‑speed crash caused by an ICE chase becomes, in her frame, a rare picture of collective solidarity—everyday residents forming a united front, documenting federal power, and quietly claiming the moral ground.

While the image went viral, little was written about why it had such an impact. In our latest Chatting the Pictures video, we read it detail by detail, to show how its composition, timing, and gestures have made it a breakthrough resistance picture for this state and this moment. Watch now:

More: The events that built this picture