Man, yeah. Lots of complex emotion on this for me over the last week. I’m a white Minnesotan, working 6 days a week even during COVID-19... I thought about photographing/video documenting, and I agree it is incredibly important work and that things must be seen.
But my heart is broken. Just straight ripped apart. I just got home from two days In Minneapolis/St. Paul, and I’m glad I didn’t bring a camera, and I left my phone in my bag. There’s a LOT of I guess I’d call it “social justice tourism” going on, and that just sits uneasy with me. Like, people were posing with their friends and signs for selfies, and then leaving the sit-in at the capitol before it was done... even more selfies with the George Floyd mural at Cup Foods. Don’t get me wrong, it is good that those people are at least engaging on some level, but social media is already drowning in this stuff at the moment, that isn’t necessarily an efficient vehicle for change.
I don’t need pictures to communicate what I’ve seen with my own eyes. I saw the entire capitol lawn filled to bursting with beautiful peaceful people all afternoon, championing full institutional overhaul of the oppressive system... which by the way was organized and led by FREAKING HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS, who were all more articulate than yours truly.
I worked alongside hundreds of my fellow Minnesotans ALL DAY yesterday as we packed food and household supplies for our neighbors in need. We were tired. We were drenched in sweat. It was beautiful. Emotions, events, words and actions are in the highest contrast in this moment.
Sometimes you’ve gotta leave the camera behind and commit your full self to being present. And I must say this: while the news has been reporting both the peaceful protests and the unrest, the time devoted to each is woefully disproportionate to the time Minnesotans have been devoting to each. Yes there has been some destruction and some violence. But there is an immeasurably larger effort of peaceful demand for justice.
Heres the only picture from today, snapped by a construction worker on an adjacent building and texted to one of the church food drive organizers. All of those bags of groceries were gone within half an hour. The need is real, but Minnesotans are rising to the occasion, government or no government.
Frontline riot photographer...what is that ? Wedding photographer, I know... but Frontline riot photographer.
"...I'm risking my life to cover this story (gunshots, rocks, fire, tear gas, etc.)"
I think it's the etc. that pose a problem here. Anyone with a camera "feel the need to document" the riot. So cool, you don't have to travel to war zone like Syria or Yemen to be in the boots of a photojournalist, just go downtown, to get a shot of adrenaline. The smell of tear gas is so exciting my dear ! Do you think I should take a ND filter, because yesterday I couldn't focus well with the flash grenade. No joke, last time I saw on the news, a lady with a gimbal running with the protesters. Next is what ? slow mo with a Phantom ? 360 VR ?
The same people are taking pictures of homeless, you know...to document poverty. All of that, to feed social media and get followers. Pathetic.
When you introduce yourself saying:
Frontline riot photographer.
"...I'm risking my life to cover this story (gunshots, rocks, fire, tear gas, etc.)"
it's an insult to photojournalist who died, doing their job.
Anyone doubting the motive of a white man choking a black man for almost nine full minutes should take a moment and think about himself.
Can you think of one reason why 9 minutes ?
i’ll follow up Andrew’s advice and mail amazon and dpreview about this thread censoring.
