Matthew Shepard Vigil in NYC 10/19/98, 1999
Process
A series of 16 images Angelopoulos captured as videos stills on her television screen from a video tape she recorded on the night of October 19, 1998. The first edition was published as c-prints in 1999 and was shown in New York City. The second edition has been under production since 2021. The c-print dimensions are 11 x 14 inches and are edition of 5. Each print is signed, dated, numbered, and stamped on the verso. The pigment print dimensions are 17 x 25 pigment print and are an edition of 3. Each print is signed, dated, and numbered on the verso.
Past Publications and Exhibitions
In 1999, a poetry anthology was published by Painted Leaf Press called “Blood & Tears” , edited by Scott Gibson. The book is out of print but can still be found in various vintage online booksellers. My full set of photographs were shown at A Different Light Bookstore along with the video I shot of the Vigil in New York, the source of my photographic stills. A selection was included in “American Dream” at Ronald Feldman Gallery in 2003 and in its current group exhibition in 2025.
Summarized Account – Statement of Purpose
On October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young gay college student with a bright future was beaten, tied to a fence post and left to die on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. Media coverage of the prayer vigils and details of the gruesome murder triggered a nation-wide outcry amongst LGBTQ activists and allies. Thirteen nights later, a call for a “political funeral” drew between 3,000 – 5,000 people to rally in mid-town Manhattan. While some event organizers were immediately arrested by police, a segment of the marchers made their way to Times Square down 43rd Street while others continued on 5th Avenue. The 43rd street group was confronted by a wall of police officers as they reached 6th Avenue. Agitation escalated when the mounted police appeared, facing off with the marchers. A handful of experienced activists, called on the crowd to sit down and stay calm in order to keep the horses from charging — for many, their first act of civil disobedience. Those of us who were video witnesses to this event approached media vans parked on nearby avenues. We watched sensationalized arrest segments being broadcast on the nighttime news, acutely aware of how news programmers’ selective storytelling perpetuate myths about protesters and LGBTQ activists. The Shepard tragedy spawned collective outrage across America enabling the nation and the world to mourn with his family and community.
My prior experience as a video witness to progressive activism in the 1990s led me to believe that the Matthew Shepard vigils were an historic turning point towards a legal and cultural eradication of social homophobia. My motivation to cull moments from my video recording of the political funeral march and vigil was to capture the energy and complex response of New Yorkers to the Shepard tragedy in solidarity with LGBTQ communities in more remote regions of America. Perceptually I wanted to extend the life of the media beyond its use as evidence for activist legal support and as news media snippets, further destined for an archive. I paused the video along passages of the evening’s march and photographed poignant messages in signs, expressive gestures in the crowd that echoed over several decades in the fight for basic human rights. The images evoke a visual tapestry of neon light and contrasted pixels that shifts our familiar perception of broadcast media culture transformed into a timeless eulogy against brutality. In full, the photographs in print form are indexical icons caught in a fleeting media that eventually breaks down, as the crowds who fight in the struggle evolve through the generations.
Links
For more information go to:
https://www.matthewshepard.org/
https://www.matthewshepard.org/the-laramie-project/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard_and_James_Byrd_Jr._Hate_Crimes_Prevention_Act
To read a full legal account of the protest/vigil go to:
https://actupny.org/reports/Shepard.html
NYT article on protest/vigil:
Masha Gesson Article on Ordinary Violence 20 years later:
