Anger, frustration and demands for change: Photographing protests on the street
Freedom of speech and assembly are enshrined in the first amendment and Americans take advantage of these rights often. Sometimes, I’m there with my cameras.
I’ve been to a lot of protests. The largest one I’ve even seen was the Women’s March in downtown Portland, Maine in January 2017, the day after Donald Trump was sworn in as president. The longest and most intense protests I’ve ever documented came in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. They’d often go on for five or six hours, marching around the cirty, stopping to lie down in the street and then moving on to another location where speakers would read poetry and fire up the crowd.
Physically speaking, it can be demanding. There’s often a lot of a walking backwards — fast — and racing up ahead of the march. Same goes for the technical aspects. It’s not easy to scan massive, undulating crowds for a telling, decisive moment.
But I’m glad I was there. It’s was a privilege and and honor to witness history unfold.
Wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, James Holmberg (left) argues with a protester, who gave their name as Tara, in front of the Portland Police Station in 2020. Holmberg, along with a handful of other counter protesters, showed up at the racial justice rally and mostly taunted the protesters. (photo by Troy R. Bennett)
Around 2,000 Black Lives Matter protestors lie face down in the middle of Commercial Street in Portland on a June evening in 2020 for eight minutes — the same amount of time a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on George Floyd’s neck before he died. (photo by Troy R. Bennett)
A protestor unfurls a banner at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Portland in 2016. The proceedings were interrupted four times by similar protests. (photo by Troy R. Bennett)
Ishmiel Bradley, 15, of Belgrade lies face own in front of the State House in Augusta in June 2020 with around 1,000 other anti-racism protestors. (photo by Troy R. Bennett)
Longtime Bangor Civil Rights leader James Varner, 86, delivers an emotional message to an anti-racism protest in Augusta in June 2020. Varner attended the famous 1963 march on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Varner also attended King’s funeral in 1968 after he was gunned down in Memphis. (photo by Troy R. Bennett)
