This series of photos is from Sunday, May 31st of this year, the fourth day of protests here in Louisville. These were taken at the intersection of 6th and Main Streets in downtown, LMPD and National Guard had been following protesters down Main Street until they stopped on opposing sides of 6th street.
It was while the two groups were facing off that they guy on the bike rode up. I heard him before I saw him, the speaker hanging from the handlebars of his bike was playing Martin Luther King Jr's 'I Have A Dream' speech. At this time LMPD was being rather aggressive towards anyone who came near their line and then this guy rode up and started pedaling back and forth in front of them, just a foot or two away. The contrast between the words of the speech and the guy riding the bike with the cops and guard in their battle rattle and their humvees and police cars made this one of the most powerful and moving moments that I have ever had the privilege to photograph.
Now, for the second part of what this post is about. I was recently reminded of the Sony World Photography Awards and discovered that this round has just a week or two left before they stop accepting submissions. You can read more about the awards and join in yourself here. There's a Professional competition and an Open competition, the first being for a series of images and the second being for single images. There's also Youth and Student competitions but there's more restrictions for those (and the deadline has passed for student).
I entered the Open once before but I'm thinking this time I will go with the Professional. The only catch with doing that is that afterwards you can't enter the Open competition but I want to pull together a series from the protests here. Now I have to decide which of this series I like the best, which do you like best? Let me know if you decide to enter, I'd love to see more photos from hive getting attention elsewhere.
Great shots of a very important time in our country.
Thank you! It's certainly an interesting and lively time to be out with a camera.
Crazy. That's the shot I was telling you about. I saw that same dude on tv when we arrived in Knoxville. It was a commercial for the upcoming noose programming. Same dude was on their cover.
Very nice, colonel.
I think the last one man, if you're going to enter one of these. It's a tough call though. Good luck dude, you deserve credits or awards or whatever it is they give photographers.
Thank you! I was telling someone else about you seeing that on TV just the other day, it's a small damn world.
While I appreciate credits or awards, dinero is more what I'm after :)
These are some great shots you captured here, if you are to enter one of these, for me its the last photo.
Good luck in the contest, they have some great photos in their site
Thank you! I really like the last two but choosing between them is difficult. Thanks for dropping by!
The second to last looks great but if I'm to judge, I would go for the last. Its really your choice to make, I'm expecting a good news from the contest
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I think the last shot is the winner. His facial expression and the 'I MATTER" full frontal sends the message. The blurred swat guys in the background couldn't be any finer.
Just my opinion, good luck with the competition.