William Street, Derry, Ireland

Gilles Peress

1972 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Peress's first photographs, which portrayed the aftermath of a labor dispute in a French coal mining town in 1970, marked what has become his lifelong social commitment as a photographer. After joining Magnum Photos, the prestigious agency founded by Robert Capa, he headed to Northern Ireland in 1971 to document the Irish civil rights struggle. Here, Peress captures a riot on William Street in Derry, a ritual site of confrontation between the Irish and English that would become forever infamous after the events of "Bloody Sunday," January 30, 1972, when British troops sprayed tear gas and opened fire on demonstrators. Through its taut immediacy and powerful sense of the opposition between machine and man, the photograph is an iconic depiction of modern street warfare.

Artist

Gilles Peress

Date

1972

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1992