Powerful Photos Capture Passionate George Floyd Protests in Minneapolis

So this sort of attraction has remained with me — seeing, witnessing, and being inspired by the spontaneous and passionate gathering of people for a greater cause than your own. It has always fascinated me how a collective effort can bring about a new social and political reality.

As for the “documentary” aspects, this may sound weird — and I hadn’t thought about it — it is probably in part due to the fact that I lost my diaries and the poetry from that time when an earthquake destroyed our house and my hometown in the winter of 1988. Also being a sociologist and a student of history, for me, the importance of documentary evidence cannot be overstated. I am just obsessed with gathering documents, probably one of the reasons I am yet to finish a book I have been working for several years is because I keep coming across new information that I feel compelled to include in it. Documenting is a way of life for me. That is sort of my mindset in general terms.

So having sort of this background, I have felt compelled to document the aftermath of Philando Castile’s and now George Floyd’s senseless killings; and if the images that I try to capture can move even one person, I will feel vindicated. I try to capture the entire range of emotions in these demonstrations and gatherings and share them with friends and whoever is interested.

I try to convey a story that many people in my social circle (and outside of it) may not have necessarily found interesting or compelling, hoping meanwhile that my images may yet make them feel compelled and interested. Through these images, I try to bring to my friends, colleagues, and anyone interested a visual representation of the social situations that they may not have the ability, or the inclination, or the wish to confront. If they do not come to these situations, I try to bring these situations to them. So in a sense, I try to make them feel less comfortable. I try to prick their taken-for-granted realities.

What was the atmosphere when you were in the midst of the protests?

I went to three sites. The first was the site of George Floyd’s killing and it was really one of the saddest situations I had found myself in in a very long time. The atmosphere was mixed, but the general tone was somber. There were angry people, there were grieving people, there were bewildered people — mostly children whose parents were trying to explain what had happened and the children could not register what had happened or what was happening. They could not understand the crying, and the occasional loud wails, and the angry outbursts of the adults around them. It was painful to see them trying to process the burden that they will soon be inheritors of.

The second site was the Third Precinct of the Minneapolis police department, which I found too dangerous to stick around for long as you could sense that something major was going to go down and after snapping some photos there I headed to University Ave. in St. Paul where I witnessed complete mayhem. And at one point I was teargassed. Twice. But I was able to move to safe ground to catch a breather and regain vision before I headed back home.

Why do you feel that these types of protests are important?

The importance of collective social action cannot be overstated. There are countless examples of real political changes taking place due to protests — often peaceful, sometimes not so much. Of course, there’s the counter-argument that changes are best implemented through voting, through the very boring and very long political process. What protests accomplish, however, and which may be their greatest virtue, is that they make political elites sit up and take heed. In a sense, protests are politics by other means.

To add to this, I think it was Kurt Vonnegut that said that, during the Vietnam War, people were irked that the Vietnamese did not fight like ladies and gentlemen, in uniform, that is nice, prim, and proper. And so extending the metaphor, we can say that people feel like protesting like ladies and gentlemen has not worked, or it has had a very limited and qualified success. Certainly, this was the general feeling among the protestors.

Is there any particular moment from the protests that stood out to you?

I think the presence of so many children at the site of George Floyd’s death was really what stood out for me. It was painful to see them there. This should not be anyone’s Introduction to Life 101, let alone for children. But, unfortunately, for many children in the African American community, this is an all-too-painful reality.

What do you hope will come out of this experience?

Historian Lynn Hunt has a great little book called Inventing Human Rights where she discusses the historical origins of human rights, both as a concept as well as a movement. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how the rise of modern literature in places like France allowed the reader to imagine himself or herself in other people’s shoes so to speak, inspiring fellow-feeling. Stories that writers like Rousseau, Voltaire, and others were telling their readers often portrayed disordered and inharmonic social relations allowing their readers to imagine a more equitable world, a more just society. Although not fictional, I try to tell stories with my photos as well, stories driven mostly by empathy.