Jessica Daugherty
This collection of medium format, 120 photographs, shot on a Lubitel 166B camera, documents the messages that people in Portland, OR left on the walls of city-owned buildings and carried with them through the streets during the uprisings in defense of black life and indigenous sovereignty in the Summer of 2020. Proceeds from the sale of these photographs will be donated to the PDX Car Caravan, a protest that continues to organize through the winter.
I wanted to document this moment in civil rights history objectively, and without endangering protesters who are often doxxed by police and those in opposition to their beliefs using their pictures online. I wanted to record the feeling of the area surrounding the Justice Center at the height of the summer when the Black Lives Matter movement had great momentum in Portland. To understand the frustrations and desires of the people, I looked to the walls of the city that were covered in messages and demands. I didn't think the task of photographing these scenes would be dangerous or at all precarious. I went during midday, when the doors of the Justice Center were boarded up, the lines of police and federal agents were housed quietly inside, and protestors were at their day jobs or quarantining. I was taking a photograph of a stencil that read "Black Lives Matter" on the sidewalk when I was approached by a person who was interested in my camera, a Lubitel that looks and functions similarly to a Rolleicord or Brownie camera. As this person asked me about the camera, they quickly raised their camera phone and took a photo of me without my approval. It struck me that this person may not have been as friendly as it seemed and perhaps was recording my interest in and presence at the Justice Center. Dreading a confrontation, I ducked my head, said some strange goodbye, and walked around the corner away from the area. My Trust has changed, and for me, that is the story of these documentary photographs.