Ryan Skut
July 2020 — Portland, OR
These photos represent a small portion of an unfinished and untitled project revolving around Portland, Oregon’s 2020 protests against racial injustice and police brutality. This work was done as a protestor, not as press. I believe there is an important distinction to be made between “active participant” and “observer” when one is capturing events like this.
This selection is from a one week period in the month of July, and represents some of the wildest, most radicalizing scenes I have ever been a part of. The explosive energy, bravery, and camaraderie put on display by the people of Portland was unlike anything I had ever seen. In an otherwise bleak time, and with the divide between “peaceful protest” and “direct action” widening every day, thousands of strangers stood together in opposition to an abusive overreach of the federal government.
July was my entry point into the Portland protest scene. That summer, fall, and winter would see me get set on fire, witness a man shot and killed, and have a nervous breakdown. It was also a time of unprecedented personal and creative growth.
I printed these images myself, as I wanted to spend more time with them and explore their physical form. Presented small, these images could be sharp and tidy. When enlarged, the viewer is confronted by messy grain and soft details, much like the confusing and rapidly evolving environment that these images were captured in. This scale allows one to sit with the details of the odd, contemplative moments, and fall into the depth of the larger, more chaotic scenes.