Photostory

For this assignment, I was super conflicted about what I should photograph. Then I realized, with everything going on in the world right now, the protests and such, why not capture that? While in the Zoom on Monday morning, we talked about how photojournalists could go to protests like the ones in Portland and distance themselves and make it known that they're only there to capture the matter. Earlier in the week when I started this assignment, the Portland protests weren't the safest and my parents didn't really want me to put myself in dangerous situations if I actually went to one. Maybe people would get the wrong message and do something to harm me. So instead, I captured the aftermath.

June 2, 2020, Portland, OR. Walking towards the Justice building, you can see

the tagging and vandalism that looters have done throughout the city. Peaceful protesting

is always the start, but there's a smaller group inside the peacefulness that destroys

the city. This was taken towards the beginning of the protests when the protesters wanted

to be around the justice building. Authorities quickly said no and out fences up around

the property, threatening the tear gas or use any type of police force to keep the

people away. You can't see in this photo, but there is indeed a fence around the building

and when you walk up closer, they have boarded up the windows and doorways.

June 4, 2020, Portland, OR. Again around 6AM, I drove into Portland to see the things

that happened the night before with the protesting. I was not there, but I want to guess someone had

thrown something threw this business window, or it was hit with rubber bullets.

You can see how big the hole is and the shattered glass all around it. Walking down

this street in Portland, you wouldn't believe the amount of vandalism that

businesses took. In almost every window, there's a hole. Every other business has boarded

up its windows to try and protect itself from looters and shoplifters.

June 5, 2020, Portland, OR. Later in the evening, protesters started gathering downtown.

I decided it probably wasn't the safest place to be, so I crossed the river to the

other side of Portland. While driving down Sandy Blv, I saw this theatre.

I pulled over and took this shot. Seeing this after all the vandalism in downtown

was relieving. It was a good feeling to see someone try and spread awareness

of the situation at hand without being destructive or harmful to the city. While driving down Sandy,

I saw more than just this. A bunch of businesses on the other side of the river were

trying to draw attention to BLM by handing out flyers, posting signs, and everything

in between.

June 2, 2020, Portland, OR. A closer look towards the justice building. Right outside

you can see looters have burned a car and tagged it. You can also start to see

the fences that the city set up to try to stop the looters. This was a very important

area for the protesters to be because this building is where the city of Portland holds all its

records. They wanted justice for those who have died due to police brutality.

It wasn't until looters came to ruin it for everyone by trying to break the building's windows,

break into the building and light it on fire.

*LANGUAGE WARNING* 

June 3, 2020, Portland, OR. I wanted a closer look at the justice building, so I went out and

around the fencing, I had up. An officer asked me what I was doing and I explained my

school assignment. He stayed with my until I was finished taking photos. In the back, it is dark

and hard to see, but you can somewhat see the boards that are covered with graffiti. This

all happened on the first night of protests when the fencing wasn't up.

June 5, 2020, Portland, OR. While walking in the city, I found the spot from the night before

where my friends were protesting. Police had set up this fence to block the protesters

from coming onto certain streets. This is the spot where my friends were tear-gassed and

shot with rubber bullets. The protest was peaceful. Looters came close to the fence and wouldn't listen to police officers about backing away. I had multiple friends peaceful protesting

in the general area, and when police opened fire, they were in the area. They were

tear-gassed so bad, one of my friends couldn't even see to walk. Someone had to come to

pick her up from the protest. What this photo means to me, as you can see there is a fence in

front of the "Black Lives Matter" on the building ahead. Their voices have been muted. 

They have been abused by the police force, they've been killed by them too. To me, this

is a visualization of what it might be like to be silenced. Fenced away and blocked off

from speaking out. I may never understand what it's like, but I stand with them.