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June 28: Week in Photography
Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs. 📸 MOST POWERFUL PHOTO OF THE WEEK 📸 Eric Baradet / AFP via Getty Images The United States has a long history of racial injustice embedded in its foundation that is now being reckoned with in a public, often painful process. The laudatory statues of controversial racist figures have been a target for ire before, but are being revisited again as protests against anti-Black racism and police brutality continue across the country.
Presidents themselves are not immune from reconsideration, as this image by Eric Baradet for AFP of the equestrian statue of former US president Andrew Jackson shows. The statue was a target for protesters who tried to topple it at Lafayette Square, in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22.
📸For Your 👀 Only: WHAT IT MEANS TO PROTEST Lynsey Weatherspoon is a must-know name if you're interested in either protest photography or photography in Atlanta. We spoke with Weatherspoon about her practice, the industry, and what it's like going from weddings to protests.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO PHOTOGRAPHY? I started off in photography because my mom was an artist as well. She was a painter [and] sculptor and also a photographer. I did not seek to be a photographer as a career. My original goal was to work for a major news outlet and be an anchor. I started out as a wedding and portrait photographer and learned more about the commercial and advertising world from some friends. I moved to Atlanta in 2014 from Birmingham, Alabama, and I taught public speaking at one of the local universities. During that time, I was growing my photography business. I decided to go full-time as a photographer in 2017.
Lynsey Weatherspoon HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AS A PHOTOGRAPHER? I’m a mixture. Weddings, honestly, prepared me for the photojournalism world. When you’re at a wedding, things are moving a mile a minute, and if you see the moment you have to try and catch it and move on to the next. When I'm on the editorial beat, I am definitely a true thoroughbred photojournalist. When I go on assignments that are more intimate, the artist in me comes out. You have to think of it from an extremely humanistic approach. These people are people just like me, and I don’t want anyone to rush my time, especially if we have time, so why not just learn a little bit about each other, become fast friends, and create something together. It's not just for me — it's for everybody to see how you are in that particular situation.
I was just fed up with everything. It was the last straw for it all. This is the first time I ever photographed a protest, so I went out there pretty green. Luckily I am in a good amount of photography groups and I've seen some tips on how to cover these types of events. I didn’t expect anything from it. I just wanted to come back with moments that I saw, and to share with whoever wanted to see them, and then all of a sudden, things just blew up from there. After that, I had quite a few people reach out, including yourself, reaching out wanting my thoughts on what I saw.
HOW HAVE THE PROTESTS CHANGED? The night that Rayshard Brooks was killed, a lot of us didn’t find out about it until the next day. Learning about it only fueled more fire behind our reaction to what’s going on. That situation could have been a lot different if there had been more care about getting Rayshard home.
Lynsey Weatherspoon It really reinforced why we are out here. You still have people questioning why do we protest, or why do we keep saying the same things over and over and it's like, because obviously you’re not listening. If it had to happen again, here it is — this is why we say “Black lives matter”; this is why we chant no justice no peace with so much fervor in our hearts about it.
I plan on continuing my work around protests and I've been thinking about where I want to land in all of this. There is one aspect of having your protest images, but you don’t want to be pigeonholed to that. As you’ve noticed, I shoot a lot of portraits and I like the intimacy of that. I’ve met so many wonderful people in this very short amount of time, it’s just a question of what’s next, what is still impactful to the movement. I just don’t know it. I'm still so engulfed in this, to remove myself from it is a bit difficult.
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR PEOPLE COVERING A PROTESTS? Be mindful of the crowd — simply because it's a large group of people you know nothing about. I’d say the same thing if you were at a concert or any other event. Also, make sure you tell someone where you’re going, always be in touch. I would take a picture of what I’m wearing and text it, just in case something happened to me. I also used Google Maps and Apple Find My Friends so people can keep track of where I am. Drink lots and lots of water. Take a break, you’re going to be doing a lot of walking, and take some time to interact with people without the goal of taking their picture. You’re not out there alone physically, but you’re out there alone when you have the mindset of a photojournalist, and when you connect with people in the moment, it brings you back to the humanistic side. Lynsey Weatherspoon WHAT'S BEEN YOUR FAVORITE RECENT PHOTO PROJECT? For a few years, I’ve been working on a project about the gullah geechee culture. I’ve been focusing more on those who live in Georgia, and I would like the project to expand into the Carolinas and Florida as well. I saw a video about gullah geechee culture on Facebook and I had never heard of them. As I was doing research, someone friended me, and their Facebook name was Gullah GeeChee Trio and I was like, OK, this is destiny. I started traveling to Derry, Georgia, and documenting and taking portraits of living descendants of gullah geechee. It's been a growing project that I hope to continue.
Photography has a way of healing and preserving the feelings of those that you photograph. When you enter into a situation where you have a lot more time with someone, be sure to be compassionate, especially in a very intimate and vulnerable space. 📸THE WEEK'S PHOTO STORIES FROM BUZZFEED NEWS 📸 This week, we look at legacies: from the enormous social impact of LGBT protests in the last 50 years to the continued relevance and resonance of Gordon Park's work on police investigations.
Find more of the week's best photo stories here.
THIS LEGENDARY BLACK PHOTOGRAPHER DOCUMENTED POLICE ARRESTS IN THE 1950s Courtesy Gordon Parks Foundation "One of the saddest lessons of our contemporary moment is our inability to learn from the recent past." SEE THE FULL STORY
INSPIRING MOMENTS FROM LGBT HISTORY Ken Cedeno / Corbis via Getty Images "For these people to publicly make a statement that they were gay or lesbian was this enormous risk for them — they could have lost everything." SEE THE FULL STORY
📸SOME HOPE 📸 Jordi Vidal / Getty Images I mean, who doesn't just want a hug? It’s been an intense month, but this image by Emilio of Morenatti of Agustina Cañamero, 81, and Pascual Pérez, 84, hugging and kissing at a nursing home in Barcelona on June 22 gives me hope.
"That's it from us this time — see you next week!" —Gabriel and Kate "All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”— Richard Avedon Want More? Go To JPG Homepage
đź“ť This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Gabriel Sanchez is the photo essay editor based in New York and loves cats. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs. You can always reach us here.
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