"I love to work with
people and stories. Documentary photography is the perfect medium for
doing so. During
the protests I got to navigate the experience for myself as it was
occurring. I was able to see it with my own eyes, not there someone else lens. It allowed me to bring my own perspective of the story.
Being
a photographer during the protests in Baltimore last spring was a
profoundly life changing experience. As a resident of Baltimore at
the time, living only a mile down the road from where much of the
protesting occurred, I saw my own city and community change over
night. It was compelled to take part in whatever way I could. I found
my photographing and filming of the protests to be a natural and
effective way for me to support the movement. I saw plenty of other
photographers there from all the major news outlets, but they seemed
to be interested in tragedy, fear, and destruction rather than the
healing, compassion, and over-whelming sense of community happening.
The
news outlets were only showing the destruction. They would wait with
their cameras off until a fight broke out or someone was yelling
angrily. What I saw was a city that has been riddled with fear, violence
and distrust (especially between races) all of the sudden come together
and show an incredible amount of compassion and empathy for each other.
Most
people were perfectly fine being photographed. The protesters wanted
to bring attention to the issues that caused the death of Freddie
Gray and other social injustices occurring in our city. I think they
were also aware that most of the country was seeing a very different
picture from the news outlets than what we were seeing on the ground.
They welcomed my point of view.
During
the day the protesting was very heated and intense, but largely
peaceful. At night most people left because we all knew that at night
people who wanted to incite more violence and chaos would be
likely to start something. I did however document a small protest on
my own block one night. Some local musicians who lived a few houses
down from me started playing outside and asking people to join around
as the curfew set in. Eventually over 50 people were outside dancing
in the street. The message was “Don’t be afraid to come outside.” It was a powerful message because before all this happened my block
was not much of a neighborhood. It was always empty, I knew none of
my neighbors, and I had been mugged there only a few weeks before. It
didn’t feel like a community. After this little protest on our
block we all knew each other, and we felt empowered together.
For
me, the most important part of photographing the protests is the portraits. I love the image of the
young man yelling into the microphone, his fierce
passion embodies the earnest frustration a lot of people were crying
out about. At the end of the day I hope the number of people
arrested, cars burned or buildings looted doesn’t represent these
events… It is the people involved that embody this movement."
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