Contact sheet: Protests

Sometimes you feel it boiling. You can tell it’s all going to explode. Sometimes it happens so quickly that there’s no time to react in a reasonable way. Everything crashes down. Sometimes the tension is so thick the air gets hard to breathe. You wait—everyone waits—for that thing, that breaking point. You see it all in the faces, in the anger and tears. Sometimes you see people looking so hopeless—“Is this ever going to end?” You see the same people in the same cities in the same streets a month or a year later and it’s deja vú in the worst of ways. Not a reunion, but a crashing back together brought on by still more violence from some large outside force. It’s not getting better. It’s not going to end anytime soon. So, give some time to the people in the streets. Look in their eyes as they march, as they inhale gas and pepper spray, as they lay beaten and bleeding, because a picture can’t tell their story. But their eyes will. There it is—the real story, right there in their eyes. Look and listen.

Contact Sheet is a place for local photographers to share their projects. If you’re interested in submitting, write to voices@langdonpublishing.com.