Explore South Central Los Angeles, August 15, 2014

Look at a Photograph of a Person at a Protest

Before reading about the photograph, see what you can discover just by looking closely. First, describe what you see in as much detail as possible. Start with the subject, then move to the background. Then, use the following questions to guide you.

• Only part of the person’s face is visible. What can you tell about his expression from just his eyes and forehead? What feelings might he be experiencing?
• How would you describe the light in this photo? What mood or feeling does it create for you?
• The bandana covering his face is patterned like an American flag. What are some different ways you could interpret this choice by the protester?
• What questions do you still have about this photo? What information do you wish you could see that isn’t shown?

Read About this Photograph Taken During a 2014 Black Lives Matter Protest

This photograph taken by photojournalist Ted Soqui at a 2014 Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles shows a young protester covering his face with an American flag bandana, his eyes looking away from the camera, toward something beyond the frame. Soqui stood far away and used a zoom lens to take the photo. This made the background look simpler and pulled the subject forward, so he stands out clearly against the sky. The photo was likely taken near sunset, sometimes called the “golden hour,” when light often looks warmer and softer.

The date and location of this photograph matter. It was taken on August 15, 2014, just days after Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers shot and killed Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old Black man with a history of mental illness. Ford’s family said he was harmless and that officers had no reason to stop him, while LAPD officers claimed a scuffle occurred and Ford reached for a gun. His death happened during a summer already filled with grief and outrage over other recent cases of police violence. Protesters in Los Angeles connected Ford’s killing to the deaths of Eric Garner in New York City and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, pointing to what they described as a pattern of police brutality against Black Americans. This photograph was taken during that summer, in the same South LA neighborhood where Ford had been killed.

In this photo, the flag is more than just a piece of cloth. It represents a bigger idea about who is included in America and who has been treated unfairly or left out. Worn as a mask and protection against tear gas at a protest against police violence, the flag can mean different things depending on who is looking at it and why. A few years later, Shepard Fairey transformed this image into his poster, American Rage (2020).

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• The American flag bandana simultaneously asserts national identity and conceals personal identity. What does it mean to wear the flag as a mask at a protest against police violence? What message do you think the man is hoping to communicate by wearing this bandana in this way—might it be a statement of agency, defiance, dissent, or protest against racism and oppression? What details from the image support your response?
• The photograph isolates a single person against an empty background, removing most visible markers of crowd, place, and event. What is gained by that visual isolation? What context or information is lost, and does that loss change the story the image tells?
• This photograph was taken six days after Ezell Ford was shot and killed less than two miles away. Knowing that context, does it change what you see in the image? How does historical knowledge shape the experience of looking at a photograph?
• This image features one young man. Who else might have been at this protest who is not in the frame? Whose stories, perspectives, or grief are not represented in this single image, and how might we account for those absences when we study documentary photographs?

A movement and organizing framework that emerged in 2013, founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. The movement calls attention to violence and systemic racism experienced by Black communities in the United States, particularly around policing, and has organized major protests following incidents such as the killings of Michael Brown (2014), Ezell Ford (2014), Breanna Taylor (2020), and George Floyd (2020). BLM is both a specific organization and a broader slogan/movement used by many different groups and individuals, whose views on tactics and goals vary.

Historical, organized, and systemic mistreatment of and discrimination towards a group or community. Oppression can be ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized.

Prejudice and discrimination against people because of their race.