I’m from Chicago, it’s my city. So when something happens I care

My work represents the attitudes, awareness, responsiveness, and cultural climate of my surroundings. The images presented here are a view of the causation of human experience, and not in a correlative response to it. The goal of the project is to portray attitudes toward police authority and media representation discordance.

In Chicago Massive Demonstrations were held, after the release of footage of youth shootings by Police. In Laquan Mcdonald’s case, there were police cover-ups and an attemt by the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, to delay the footage from being released and first degree murder charges filed, until after his reelection.

When I was young, a friend of mine said that I “Open my eyes too wide.” This allusion remains with me and has permeated my work and with these images; my goal has been to explore constructs that bridge the divide between the seen and the unseen. My eyes remain open wide to the untold stories that surround an arrested moment. My focus on disenfranchisement, poverty, exploitation, isolation, and corruption endeavors is to give my subjects clarity amid the chaos and raison d’être to a struggle that much of the world would choose to obscure.
This work exists not to contrast with, but to connect to, the immediate experience. The joy and the sorrow, the humility and the aggrandizement, the contempt, the fear, the exuberance, a full scope of the human condition can be seized at any moment and lost with equal haste. We are too often led to consume broad, benign imageries, while turning away from the stark and unwelcome realities before us.

I hope to accurately portray the attitudes and cultural climate in my city.

Pride 2014

The Chicago Pride Parade brings more than 1 million people to the Lakeview and Uptown areas- containing a neighborhood known as Boystown, a traditionally gay and Lesbian Community.

We see a complete disregard for authority during the 2014 Pride Parade. In the crux of marriage equally at the Supreme Court (same sex marriage had been signed into law in Illinois earlier that year), tension with the Chicago Police, and Chicago’s segregation, and shifting neighborhoods, there is almost an air of contempt.

As of late, some of these areas’ residents and Alderman have requested the parade be moved.

Leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement

The wait

20 minutes into a city-wide walk-out, key figure in the movement, Lamon Reccord, was arrested. Protestors surrounded the vehicle and demanded his release. After a short console with a civil rights lawyer, he was released and went on to lead the protest. An officer gaurds the paddy wagon holding Lamon Q. Reccord

Rahm Resign

Protesters take major downtown streets midday during The Rahm Resign Protest.

City Hall

Police protecting City Hall during The Rahm Resign Protest.

Ferguson Soldiery Protest

Following the no indictment rulling regarding a police shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson Missouri, Chicagoans took to the streets to march in solidarity with Ferguson. When I arrived on the scene, a plain-clothes cop stood infront of my camera and told me to get lost. Later during the march, I noticed strange things happening to my phone. The police had deployed ISMI catchers, commonly reffered to as a Stingray, in vechicles labeled “Emergency Management.” I spoke with other reporters there and they confirmed strange malfunctions with their phones as well. Here, Mounted Police push a news crew off of Michigan Avenue.

After the Trump rally was canceled. some supports came out swinging, this man was removed from the crowd mostly for his own safety

Protestors surround garage exit, Police clear the way for trump rally attendees to exit the UIC pavilion

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Man before bloodied by police

A Trump support defends his decision amount a crowd of protestors

Malcolm London

As I took this, someone directed Malcolm London to face me. He literally said “I don’t care about any damn cameras.” Of course he didn’t. He had spoken in front of the U.N. giving a Ted Talk and was the Co-chair of the Black Youth Project 100 (byp100) Which is why he was targeted by the police… He had just finished giving a speech, in the middle of a major intersection on Michigan Ave. The crowd followed his every word, blocking traffic and moving when he had finished. Someone had lit a smoke bomb and we watched as a Sargeant singnaled through his vest, at Malcolm. A group of officers dogpiled atop him, and he was aressted. There was an outcry for his release, fighting and shoving ensued. The charges were dropped and he was released. Following his release, an anonymous women came forward with sexual assualt allegation against London, and he was suspended from his position in BYP100

After the fight

A distraught protester after the confrontation with police after Malcolm Londons arrest.

After The Fight 2

An officer carries the hats of other officers knocked off during a scrimmage with protesters after Malcolm London’s arrest.

Lamon Reccord

Lamon Q. Reccord may look familiar. He was on ABC, FOX news and is even featured in the World Press Photo awards. He became the face of the movement as “the stare down kid.”Rumors quickly circulated that Lamon was a paid protester, after photos of him with former Governor Pat Quinn and current Chicago Teachers’ Union president Karen Lewis emerged

Storm

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Lamon Q. Reccord leads protesters to storm the Chicago Stock Exchange.

State Tropper

State police were called in to support the Chicago Police Department.

Police block the Entrace to the Expressway preventing closure by protestors.

A group of protesters gather at the exit of the Dan Ryan Expressway to distract Police.

Protesters break through Police blockaid in order to occupy Dan Ryan Expressway.

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