I felt rather privileged three weeks ago to be able to be present at a protest outside the US Embassy ‘London Stands with Standing Rock’ and to both photograph and take part in the ceremony there, and listen to those present as well as to one of the activists from Standing Rock on a video link on Elliot Staircase’s mobile. In time, when the pictures are on My London Diary I’ll perhaps write more about this, but for the moment you can see some of them in a Facebook album (even if you don’t use Facebook.)
The protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline being routed under the Missouri River close to the land of the Standing Rock Sioux continues to grow, although still not getting the publicity it deserves in our news media.
A few days ago, the New York Times Lens blog published a story Opposing a Pipeline Near Sacred Sioux Sites, with a slide show of 19 images by 24-year-old freelance photographer from Minneapolis Annabelle Marcovici, who went to the protest site first in June, and has been back a number of times since, spending most of her time not taking pictures – as the Lens article quotes her:
“I talk to people. I help sort supplies. I’m another person in the community that’s formed at these camps, not just a passing observer.”
Along with the article on Lens by Evelyn Nieves there is also a slide show of 19 images by Marcovici which provide an intimate view of the protest camp.
But even better than the Lens article, which sets the scene well and gives some insight into the issues, is to read and see the images in the posts on Marcovici’s blog.
Interesting to get a Magnum post today about Larry Towell’s coverage of DAPL:
https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/society/larry-towell-dakota-access-pipeline-protest/
A photographer whose work I have often admired and there are several good images in the set, but I felt a distance about his work compared to Marcovici. It didn’t really look to me as if Towell had really got involved with the subject.