Photography Exhibition 'If Emmett Till Lived' Envisions What Could Have Been

An upcoming exhibition provides visual and verbal answer to a question: What if Emmett Till lived?

Entitled If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground, the exhibit will open in September at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. The show includes photography from over 70 photographers visualizing the approximately 70 years Emmett missed after his life was brutally cut short. According to the press release, "Here are railroad lines that might have taken Till not only from Chicago to Mississippi but on journeys from coast to coast, daily encounters he might have had on neighborhood streets and playgrounds, and civil rights struggles witnessed and joined. Here, too, are meals shared, marriage and fatherhood celebrated, and events that might have brought Emmett Till joy and wonder."

The exhibit is curated by Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, who asked civic and cultural leaders to select a photo from the Museum's collection to illustrate their hope for the life Emmett did not get to live. The resulting exhibit thus stands as a collective imagining of an alternative future.

The show will be accompanied by a freestanding book, If Emmett Till Lived: A Creative Monument, which will include select photos from the exhibition as well as original essays by Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch III, Vinson Cunningham, Paul Farber, Sherrilyn Ifill, Siddhartha Mitter, Jeneé Osterheldt, and ETIC Executive Director Patrick Weems.

The exhibit will run September 10 through December 19, 2026, with the book release on the opening date. The publishing and research initiative Vision & Justice has a brief video on the project's significance, which you can watch on YouTube.

We look forward to this meaningful show!