This session reflects on recent civic movements from Latin America, considering the manifold ways in which photography has been deployed by members of the public towards justice seeking purposes. Starting with an in-depth discussion of the Nicaraguan case, where a large-scale student-led protest movement emerged in 2018, only to collapse into an ever-deepening human rights crisis, we will be looking at parallel examples from the region. How do different publics express their political identities and demands through photography? Can their aspirations be brought into being photographically? Ultimately, what happens when photography enters the political field, in the hands of the people?