#12 ARRESTED IN NYC MAKING NEWS PICTURES
On today’s Photography Daily podcast, Adam Gray, a British photojournalist working and living in New York talks to us about the night he was arrested for covering the growing national unrest following the death of George Floyd in police custody.
The once simply verbalised cries of fake news from an administration courting the press one moment, then decrying it the next has seemingly switched from audible dissatisfaction to a physical version of. Reporters, photographers and film crews talk of rough treatment ranging from shoving to the deployment of rubber bullets and flash bangs.
If the police are trying to diffuse the situation, some are either wilfully or thoughtlessly fanning the figurative flames. On the same night you’re about to hear about in this episode, only in Detroit, a black journalist called Branden Hunter was singled out amongst a group of reporters covering the same scene, a quick thinking colleague coming to his aid to protest he was; “With us.”
If the freedom of the press is a simple right afforded those living under democratic understanding, those IN the press are beginning to wonder from who and from where the order is coming to silence or dissuade news gatherers.
This is but one story, Adam Gray’s story, a photojournalist, who up to only ten days ago at the time of writing was covering the Covid-19 health crisis that gripped his city. If you have a comment to make following listening the programme, please make it below, or write to studio@photographydaily.show for inclusion on the show next week.
The image referenced by Adam of his arrest taken by a colleague is below.
Our thanks to news agencies and gatherers for sharing their materials, which show the world in pictures and sound what the real story is.
Photograph courtesy Adam Gray, not to be reproduced without permission.
FURTHER REFERENCE
Adam Gray’s website
Instagram feed of Adam’s coverage in New York