GESTURES OF WAR / GESTURES OF PEACE

GESTURES OF WAR / GESTURES OF PEACE

ZACH LOWRY

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

IG: @zach.lowry

Thousands of demonstrators surround officers from the San Francisco Police Department during a march across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California on June 6th, 2020.

(Photo: Zach Lowry / Redux Pictures)

George Floyd’s death sparked global outrage after his plea for air was ignored by Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for over eight minutes and forty-six seconds. “I can’t breathe,” he gasped. Bystanders documented his death as they stood in horror as the policemen would not shift their weight off of Floyd’s body. Organizations such as Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives are leading protests to ask California state and respective city officials to recognize the systemic racism that has caused the disproportionate killings of Black men and women -- specifically, but not limited to, that which is found in the state’s police departments. Be tween 2016 and 2018, California police killed a total of 475 people by use of a firearm or an alternative method. During that time, Black Californians made up 6.5 percent of the state’s population; 15.2 percent of their communities were killed by police, according to data found by CalMatters. The following images were captured during a variety of protests and community activations across California between June and July 2020. I spent eight weeks travel ing up and down the state in order to better understand the depth of the revolution and how communities -- both large and small, both rural and urban -- were organizing, protesting, and changing. I wish to present these images not as an en capsulation of a singular moment, feeling, or period in time, but as evidence of a dynamic experience in constant evolution and revolution.

Tens of thousands of protestors flood Sunset Boulevard during the Pride x Black Lives Matter march in Los Angeles, California, on June 14th, 2020.

(Photo: Zach Lowry / Redux Pictures)

Alexa Feiner holds a mirror up to an officer from the Palmdale Sheriff’s Department to reflect his militarized appearance during a demonstration in Palmdale, California on June 20th, 2020.

(Photo: Zach Lowry / Redux Pictures)

The movement for racial justice has led waves of people to sacrifice their safety from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and take to the streets to speak out against racism and systemic inequality. As we move into the latter half of 2020, let us remember the surge of this summer’s momentum and envision the more just future to come.

To view the full series, go to http://www.zachlowry.work/

Community leader Isabel Flax leads a march against the death of Robert Fuller in Palmdale, California, on June 13th, 2020.

(Photo: Zach Lowry / Redux Pictures)