Memory, iconicity and virality inaction : exploring protest photos online

Using a photo from 1985 of a woman swinging her handbag at a neo-Nazi inSweden as an entry point, this chapter explores the formation of collectivememory through iconicity and virality with respect to digital protestimagery. It studies the visual assemblages and constellations that haveformed online around this photo and then reflects on their mnemonicand activist impact. It shows how the algorithms behind search engineslike Google Images place the photo in visual assemblages characterizedby colliding and colluding mnemonic contexts. It also reveals how thevulnerability and violence inferred by the photo are variously emphasizedin the visual constellations of different protest-related image-compilationwebpages, influencing the sorts of collective action the image promotes.