On Monday May 25, George Floyd was killed by police at the intersection of 38th and Chicago in Minneapolis.
Because the COVID-9 pandemic had caused all my programming to be cancelled, I happened to be at home, 11.6 miles to the south.
On Wednesday I went to see the site where a small memorial was taking shape and on Thursday returned with an improvised portable studio, a broken heart, and one simple question:
“What do you want to say?”
Over several days, I did nothing but show up. I listened. I gathered 50 stories from 50 people and they are all shared below in this post.
When I do this work, I always have three audiences in mind:
1 – Myself, because I learn new ways of seeing the world every time I encounter new voices and new ideas.
2 – The person I photograph, because through this process, I hope to say to them, “I see you. I hear you. And you matter.”
3 – The broader audience who encounters the work, because I believe this combination of portrait and story can touch our hearts and move our feet to action. It can help us to see ourselves and those around us in a new light.
This time feels different. Maybe the pandemic had us all off-balance and now we can see the world in new ways. Maybe when the world shut down, it created a space to consider new possibilities. Maybe this time, something will actually change.
3 thoughts on “Maybe this time”