On Wednesday, the Missouri History Museum and St. Louis Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists presented “Ferguson through the lens.” Post-Dispatch staff photographers Robert Cohen and J.B. Forbes, local freelancer Whitney Curtis, and St. Louis American’s own Lawrence Bryant discussed their most iconic images of Ferguson.
Their images captured the aftermath following the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson over 40 days ago.
“Journalists are not these perfect, 100 percent impartial, storytelling machines,” said Carlos Restrepo, PR chairperson of SPJ’S St. Louis Chapter. “Understanding what they went through helps us understand the process of news gathering during sticky situations.”
Restrepo said it was important to have four perspectives on the panel to demonstrate the difficulty in telling a story accurately in the midst of chaos. He said the panel discussion facilitated open and honest conversations about racism. He said racism is an inherent quality of human beings based on deep-rooted fears and that he has seen the fear in the eyes and minds of people of all races in St. Louis.
Lynden Steele, Post-Dispatch director of photography and SPJ member, moderated the event. Steele projected a series of photos from a laptop onto a wide screen in the Lee Auditorium. He stopped on a photo of a then-unidentified young man. His face was partially hidden by long dreadlocks. The only identifiable feature was his American flag T-shirt and the bag of Red Hot Riplets—a local brand of chips— he held in his hand.
“If the guy had been wearing a white shirt, black shirt or a khaki shirt,” Cohen said of the photo he shot, “we wouldn’t be talking about it.”
That man was later identified as Edward Crawford. Cohen said it was picture he did not expect to shoot. The photo was taken after the arrival of armored trucks trying to move people East on Chambers and a standoff ensued, he said.
“Suddenly, the police made this surge to get everybody to disperse,” he said.
Next, the police shot off tear gas canisters toward the crowd—one danced on the ground near Cohen.
“I see this guy come out of nowhere, picks it up and throws it back,” he said of Crawford.
Cohen missed his deadline and the photo never made it to print. Yet, it went viral on social media and became a world-wide sensation. An audience member said that if he had to choose only one of the photos, it would be Forbes’ photo of Brown’s funeral procession.
“I went up and down the funeral route looking for what I thought would be the best location,” Forbes said.
He found the prime spot, atop an incline on Martin Luther King Drive, and snapped the picture. In the foreground and slightly out-of-focus, two onlookers salute the funeral procession with upraised fist. To their left, the motorcycle-led funeral procession stretched down Martin Luther King to Friendly Temple Baptist Church where a mass of mourners gathered to pay their final respects. And setting the scene, the Arch hovered overhead in the background on the far left.
“It was a good way to show the enormity,” Forbes said.
Bryant described a state of fear after pointing his camera at a sniper, who in turn pointed his weapon toward Bryant.
“We locked eyes,” Bryant said. ”I don’t know if he was looking through his scope at me or not.”
All shared similar close calls with the police. Steele asked how the photographers prepared to enter “inherently dangerous” situations. Bryant said that you can not prepare yourself for situations that occurred in Ferguson, and compared it to shooting a concert.
“Concerts are fast-paced,” Bryant said. “You only get that one chance to get the right shot.”
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil | E-mail this reporter: boneil@stlamerican.com
