Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York · Photo Essays
Queen City Protests
47 photographs
In the spring of 2020, after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Poughkeepsie took to the streets. For weeks I walked with the marchers through downtown, into the parks and out onto the Mid-Hudson Bridge, photographing a city asking to be heard.
Marchers pass the city police building carrying signs that read I Can't Breathe and Justice for George, Justice for Breonna.
The anger was real and it was earned. But these photographs hold on to what came with it: candles passed hand to hand outside the church, a crowd kneeling in the crosswalk, a trooper pulling a marcher into a hug in front of the line, the Juneteenth march filling the street at dusk. People asking for justice, and finding each other while they did.
The march stretches the length of the park, one long line of people beneath the new green of the trees.Signs held high, the crowd fills the bridge deck from rail to rail.
A woman rises through a sunroof with a Black Lives Matter sign as the march fills the downtown street.Fists go up as the march turns the corner, a sign reading No Justice No Peace held just behind.
A line of state troopers in helmets and visors closes the bridge roadway.A woman and an officer walk arm in arm across the green.
Two girls lean from a second floor window to wave at the march below.Marchers pour across the bridge beneath the suspension cables.
Two mourners sit on the church steps, candles in hand, masks on.
Hands pass the flame from candle to candle as night falls.Seated on the bridge deck, fists raised beneath the towers.
Handwritten candles for George Floyd gather with pink flowers on the pavement.
A girl holds up her drawing and a candle outside the church.People line both sides of an empty street by candlelight, a single bright light waiting at the far end.
Midway across the river, the march keeps coming.
The line of candles runs down the curb as far as the eye can see.A man kneels in the crosswalk, arms open and face to the sky. Around him, the crowd kneels too.
Alone on the empty road, a young man in a tie paces toward the line of riot police.The crowd takes a knee with fists raised, an I Can't Breathe sign held high above them.
The march fills the street from curb to curb, a sign held over nearly every head.Candles and flowers on the church steps, the night of May 31.
Marchers sit down on the bridge deck in front of the line, fists in the air.
A state police sergeant pulls a young marcher into a hug in front of the riot line. She, the daughter of a New York City police officer, had only asked him for a handshake.Walking backward ahead of the march as it climbs onto the bridge.
The march crosses the bridge behind a young marcher holding a cardboard sign.
A woman stands alone in the crosswalk facing a line of troopers, her pink sign held high.A voice through a megaphone carries over the crowd.
A state police officer puts a hand to his chest as he talks with the marchers.
Two hands meet between a red bead bracelet and an officer's radio. In a thousand unseen moments, a trembling whisper for peace.A woman smiles between two troopers in riot gear, one of them resting a hand on her shoulder.
Candles at blue hour, the bridge lit up behind the Juneteenth gathering.On Juneteenth, a woman in a green mask stands in the evening street as the march gathers.
A woman leads the chant into the megaphone, the women beside her smiling.THIS IS POUGHKEEPSIE, in the window of a storefront on Main Street.
Marching to celebrate Juneteenth, newly declared a New York State holiday, a marcher in a Juneteenth shirt walks past a police SUV, and the whole street follows.
Women and children gather with candles, a little one riding high on someone's shoulders.Juneteenth night: the lit bridge, an old pier and a path of light on the black river.
A marcher waves to the cafe table as he passes, and the woman with the walker waves right back.
The march glows red under the streetlights at dusk.Juneteenth at blue hour: an arm raised, the bridge lit behind.
A girl cradles her candle flame. A younger one watches it, the adults standing close around them.
Fists raised, the whole crowd gathers for one picture beneath the Mid-Hudson Bridge, lit in green, red and black, the colors of the Pan-African flag, to honor Juneteenth.Love on the Bridge. A crowd faces a line of helmeted officers on the span.
A woman speaks to the crowd by the river, the Mid-Hudson Bridge lit up behind her.Fists rise over the candles as the vigil fills the dark.
