Photography is a powerful medium used to attract public attention and influence perceptions of current social and political issues. With a range of methods and visual techniques, artists create images that evoke an emotional response from the viewers, making them feel sympathy, fear, joy, or anger, and think deeper about the subject. The works of Joshua Rashaad McFadden, an award-winning photographer of African American origin, explore the themes of race, identity, gender, and social inequality. This paper analyzes two series of photographs by Joshua McFadden, Come to Selfhood, and After Selma. The purpose of the research is to discuss how the artist communicates with the viewer through his photographs and how his works help raise awareness about racial injustice. About the artist Joshua Rashaad McFadden is a New York-based visual artist of African American origin who was born in Rochester, New York, in 1990. In 2015, he was chosen as one of the world’s top emerging talents by Lens Culture and won the International Photography Award (IPA) for his project After Selma . In 2016, he won the first-place IPA award again for his series and book Come to Selfhood . He is most known for his portraits and the use of archival materials in his projects. After Selma After Selma is a series of black-and-white photographs shot by Joshua Rasheed McFadden during uprisings across America against police violence towards African American citizens. The title of the project alludes to the Selma to Montgomery marches held in 1965 to demonstrate the desire of African American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Unarmed marchers were attacked by the police, and several protesters were killed. The marches resulted in the signing of the Voting Rights Act that secured the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country. The After Selma project documents the 50th anniversary of the Selma-Montgomery marches in a series of photos taken during 2015 protests mirroring similar scenes from the past. The project aims to attract attention to the racial struggle that unfolded in the USA fifty years ago and is still going on today and emphasize their similarities. The series includes portraits and landscapes that tell the story of social and racial injustices and the battle for civil rights. To effectively communicate with the viewer, the author uses black and white photography. It emphasizes the project’s historical roots and establishes the connection between modern protests and the marches of the past. For the project, the artist claims to have used the photos that spoke to him the most: “I hope people will develop the same emotional connection with these photographs that I felt” (“After Selma”). For example, in the photo titled “The Beginning of Another 50 Years…” two young black men hold hands in the foreground while behind their backs, several protesters waving flags can be seen (McFadden, The Beginning of Another 50 Years…) . The black and white color palette emphasizes the connection to the past, while the expressions of the men’s faces show extreme concentration and determination, evoking sympathy and understanding. The most expressive pictures of th