Covering the Women's March on Saturday was an interesting experience. My friend Maggie and I went. She did a thing for work.
I think it's cool to know all of us who photographed, wrote, etc. about the marches got to be there for history as a documentarian.
I like to watch or read about journalists being interviewed because they were at an extraordinary event - 9/11, wars, civil rights movement - and how they viewed it, their thought processes and all that. Something that always stuck out to me is that they talk about their thinking during the event. Like, a building is falling but all they could think about was their work and covering the story accurately. Then they talk about getting home and processing - or not - what they just witnessed.
I like this page from the NPR ethics handbook that talks about independence and impartiality while observing rallies and demonstrations. We were there to bear witness.
That's something I had feelings but couldn't articulate about the Trump protests we photographed earlier. We were there, and some of the time walking (at times they were running) to get along the route, but sometimes it was hard to identify yourself. Of course if asked why you're there or who you are it's a no brainer, but the times you are just working or sitting down to take a break...
This time around, there were so many people that we had to fight through the crowd to get anywhere. We got stuck in the crowd during the speeches but made a run for it after (AKA jumped into a train of people) and got on top of cement barriers to watch and photograph the march go by.
These aren't spectacular photographs, but I'm glad I was there for this.
This is a little further forward than where we were when the speeches were happening. The first few minutes of "we're supposed to march now!" here, turned into not moving for a couple of hours. Reported to have 750,000 in attendance.
You can pretty much still see Pershing Square...
"After today, I'm going to be famous!"
Singer Khia inspired many on Saturday.
Meanwhile at Pershing Square...