Monthly Challenge 6 of 12: Civil Unrest in Mpls/St. Paul

June felt a bit like a "get back to normal" month with regards to shooting. So it's strange that my June "challenge" was simply "start making photos again like normal." And I've already had some luck submitting this work to exhibitions.

In early March, we had a "stay at home" order issued by the governor, and as I noted in last month's "monthly challenge" post, it was just lifted at the end of May. I got out and made my first 4 a.m. photos in over 2 months (since mid-March). Here they are again, as first seen in May's post:

Here was the caption I posted on Instagram:

Memorial where George Floyd was killed 36 hours ago, photographed at 4:15 this morning.
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I’m used to having the city to myself when I photograph at 4 a.m. Today, I encountered more people than I have in the previous few years combined. There were police officers across the street. There was a handful of national media getting ready to report (large, generic rental conversion vans with tech guys setting up, not the local branded vehicles). And two people walked up as I was getting ready to photograph. One stood in silence with her head down. The other kneeled down, and then ended up laying down in the wet street where Floyd was killed. I could hear him quietly praying about “change.” He sat up, pounded the pavement twice with his fist in frustration, and then they quietly walked away.
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#GeorgeFloyd #ICantBreathe

Then we had the riots. That led to about a week of curfews being set. The first few nights, the curfews were harsher: 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. But then they loosened up a little: 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. I headed out one of those final days of curfew (right as it was lifted at 4 a.m.) to make photos of the growing memorial and some of the places near the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct that had been burned (click images to enlarge):

The growing memorial around the corner from where Floyd was killed.


Not a great photo, but a fantastic message to have on the side of a
comic book store just 1 mile down the road from where George Floyd was killed.


Burned down AutoZone with the sign "If we do this 'your way' we're doomed to repeat this again."


Boarded-up burned-down Dennys (with stoplight).


"Inside" the burned down Wendy's just before 5 a.m.

The weekend in the middle of June was when I participated in a 48 hour "Chase the Light" project as hosted by the Photographic Center Northwest (PCNW). I made these 5 photos during the 4 a.m. hour on a Sunday morning, and the titles below them were what I submitted to PCNW (click images to enlarge):

Murals on the riot-protected boarded-up windows at Seward Co-op
at 4:03 a.m. (from the "4 a.m Series"), Minneapolis, MN.


Mural on the riot-protected boarded-up windows at Seward Co-op
at 4:05 a.m. (from the "4 a.m Series"), Minneapolis, MN.


The “Say Their Names Cemetery” located a block from where George Floyd
was killed at 4:33 a.m. (from the "4 a.m Series"), Minneapolis, MN.


Murals on the riot-protected boarded-up windows of Arbeiter Brewing and
Moon Palace Books at 4:50 a.m. (from the "4 a.m Series"), Minneapolis, MN.


Minnehaha Drive-Up Liquors (burned down) across from the Third Precinct
building at 4:55 a.m. (from the "4 a.m Series"), Minneapolis, MN.

The "Abolish the Police" image got accepted into the "Chase the Light" project, as I noted in a recent post.

Then, another stop at the memorial:

Alley mural next to the George Floyd memorial with the text “give me
a place to stand and I shall move the earth” at 4:10 a.m.
(The police tape says “there is a line you do not cross.”)

Just last week, I was headed down Lake Street at 4 a.m. and made this photo:

Empty lot along East Lake Street, 4:45 a.m. (That mural is 3 pieces of plywood, so 8x12' total.)

So during last month, I started making more photos, took part in a 48-hour challenge and had a piece accepted to "Chase the Light", and won the "Director's Award" in an exhibition for the 2nd photo in this post. That's a decent photographic month for me. (And as a side note, I didn't post anything about winning the "Director's Award" on social media for 3-4 days because I was processing this white man [me] winning an award for photographing scenes surrounding a black man's death. It had a "this doesn't feel *quite* right" element to it. A check arrived 2 weeks ago as part of the award, and it's waiting to be donated to an appropriate cause.)

Well, summer months have a way of getting away from me. Last month I noted that I wanted to pull out some lighting gear for next month's challenge, so we'll see if I have time to do that this month.