Photo: David Lagerlöf

This Image May End Up Being the Most Powerful of the Year

Photo + Video + Film Activism
by Carlo Alcos May 6, 2016

THIS IS A PICTURE of Tess Asplund — captured by photographer David Lagerlöf — who spontaneously decided to make a stand against a group of 300 marching neo-Nazis in Borlänge, Sweden. The uniformed group is part of the Nordic Resistance Movement, the largest neo-Nazi organization in Sweden. As to what she was thinking at the time, she told The Guardian, “It was an impulse. I was so angry, I just went out into the street. I was thinking: hell no, they can’t march here! I had this adrenaline. No Nazi is going to march here, it’s not okay.”

According to Asplund, “racism has become normalized in Sweden,” where she recounts a story in the subway when she was shouted at by a man telling her to hurry up and calling her the N-word, and no one was shocked. While she was surprised the photo went viral (and has expressed some fear of being in danger now), she hopes it can become a positive symbol for others who also want to stand up to racism.

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