Robert Gould Shaw Memorial c. 1973 - 2008

This is a photograph of the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial by Richard Benson. The image shows a bas-relief sculpture of Colonel Shaw leading the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first all-black volunteer infantry unit in the Civil War. Imagine Benson, the photographer, framing this enormous monument, wrestling with light and shadow to capture not just its form but its weight, its history. You can see the texture of the stone, the depth of the figures, the way the light catches the faces of the soldiers. I wonder what he was thinking about as he made this image and how to convey all those layers of meaning. The figures emerge from the stone, frozen in a perpetual march towards an uncertain future. See how each soldier seems to carry not just a rifle, but the weight of expectation, the burden of history, and a hope for liberation. Through his photograph, Benson has added another layer to this memorial. It's a conversation between artists across time. An act of remembrance, a meditation on history, and a reminder of the ongoing struggle for equality.