I've been shooting for over 10 years, primarily
starting out shooting portraiture, street photography
and now more socially-driven photography because I'm focused on my surroundings,
my community. While i was out documenting all the
different marches and protests, I noticed,
like, there are two sides to how the protests are being
occupied. There are people who are extremely passionate
and that comes off as being aggressive and that isn't necessarily the case, like
when people are being killed there really is
no way of being nice about it. Me being the person who's there to
document, I'm there to kind of be that unbiased
perspective, but at the same time, my work is my feelings. I'm passionate
about what I shoot and I stand behind what i photograph.
I shot the protests because I always felt a connection
with Black Lives Matter. Being a first generation Salvadoran American, I've
always felt like my life in a sense was a very political
thing. Growing up I've been ridiculed or put out because
of my ethnicity so I always felt like I understood that
kind of pain and I wanted to kind of be an ally and use my voice in a
way where if I have a platform I can just push kind of that narrative
where it's like, Hey, look guys, you gotta really pay attention to this.
Currently, one of my inspirations is the photographer Gordon Parks.
He just speaks about growing up as a black male
in America and facing different adversities throughout life. I feel like
I can relate. I feel like when I pick up a camera, I'm doing the same thing that
he's doing, in a sense. With activism we're able to like
see what's going on. With photography you actually get to understand how people
are feeling. You also understand the aspect of the
cops, as well, so you actually get to have both
balance, and it also kind of allows people to connect because you're giving
them the image where they can see what's truly going on.
The media, throughout history, they've done such a
poor job in regards to, like, twisting and turning the narrative of
like people of color upset and finally saying that enough is enough.
When things like photography or like you know
people who record video or stuff like that, they're
doing it because basically the only people we trust to
properly tell the story of, whether like mistreatment among
people of color or like the protests, it has to be us.
People shouldn't doubt the resource that they might have,
especially with photography. You could be on the streets and something important
like the George Floyd incident happened and you take out your phone, you
photograph it or you record it and once it's posted on the internet, everybody's
going to be aware of that situation and what injustices
you have faced. Photography is an instrument,
same way music can be, the same way film can be. They're all instruments to
support the movement, to expand the movement. Those instruments
can help open up some minds and, you know, have people second guess what
position they believe they're firmly planted in.
These are things that just don't stop just because the media
isn't covering it. There's still people on the, on the front lines
on the ground working really, really hard at this. Things really can't change
until you use the power that you're given
to, you know, its full capacity.
That's it. that's all I got.