Tess Asplund, born in 1974, is a Swedish activist who gained attention because of her protest against neo-Nazis in Borlänge, Sweden. David Lagerlof is the photographer of the viral image, which shows Asplund facing 300 uniformed members of the Swedish Nordic Resistance Movement with her fist in the air. She is originally from Colombia and describes herself as Afro-Swedish. “It was an impulse. I was so angry, I just went out into the street,” Asplund told the Guardian. “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.” “I hope something positive will come out of the picture. Maybe what I did can be a symbol that we can do something—if one person can do it, anyone can.” 

based on Wikipedia and the Guardian

DESIGN NOTE

I began the perSISTERS series with three iconic images of women protesters: Danuta Danielsson, “BE BRAVE” (woman hitting a neo-Nazi over the head with her handbag), Ieshia Evans, “BE PRESENT” (the awesomely poised woman in a breezy sun dress getting arrested by three riot police looking like intergalactic warriors), and this one. In all of these I have cropped in to focus on the woman’s figure, stressing that she is the agent in the tableau. (You can also see this effect in the Ruby Bridges design.) I had just experienced the DC Women’s March and I was captivated by the idea of putting my body in a particular space at a particular time in order to communicate a message of power. 

As I was working with this image I was drawing a path around the figure and her bag. Zoomed in, I saw how lumpy her bag is, and I realized she had her groceries in there. She was out doing her shopping when she was called to stand in that place at that time in that way. She was already there, but then she “Showed Up” with a very fundamental posture of resistance. My work in the perSISTERS series is my posture of resistance. Shortly after this photo was captured the police officer in the background pulled Asplund out of the way of the marchers.