Artist name: Eleanor Oakes

Image: Voter Portrait (16), 2020

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Collection

From ART3.io, Edition365 is a once-in-a-century art & photography collection documenting the historic events between 11 March 2020 and 10 March 2021: a portrait of the year that changed everything. 365 days, captured in 365 artworks, now on sale as unique NFT editions of one — with exclusive unlockable content for collectors.

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Caption

This series of portraits was made on Election Day, November 3, 2020, outside my designated voting center in Detroit. Voters were invited to take a complimentary large-format portrait, and later received a print of their image. These portraits became ever more significant when Detroit became a focus for baseless allegations of voter fraud. The images counter these claims by visualizing the real people behind the votes, those who faced disenfranchisement from elected officials pandering to a dangerously false political narrative. They also celebrate our triumph of democracy in the midst of a historic pandemic, with masks and gloves as repeated icons of the safety precautions taken by voters.

This is an ongoing project, started in 2016, that provides the opportunity for me to engage with individuals beyond political rhetoric, and offers a small token of civic service to my local community. The resulting images demonstrate a diverse group of American citizens proud to exercise their democratic right to vote, and my belief in the power of photography to unite, rather than divide.