Photo essay: My five years photographing George Floyd Square
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Over Memorial Day weekend, the world marked five years since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin at an intersection a 10-minute walk from my house.
I had no idea how the ensuing days and months would reshape my life’s trajectory.
In 2020, I had a different career and wasn’t doing journalism full time, but I still picked up my camera in my available time to document the community’s response to the death of a Black man at the hands of law enforcement, just like I’d done after the killing of Jamar Clark in 2015 and Philando Castile in 2016.
What happened next — the protests outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct, the unrest and the summer of racial reckoning that followed — was well-documented in MPR News’ coverage and elsewhere. Journalists from around the globe flooded south Minneapolis, and I witnessed my own neighborhood become the subject of Pulitzer Prize awards and front-page think pieces.
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I received my first assignment, from an international publication, covering George Floyd’s memorial service at North Central University in Minneapolis in June 2020. From there, supportive colleagues connected me with freelance opportunities at Agence France-Presse, the Washington Post and MPR News.
Over the next year, I continued documenting this small corner of south Minneapolis at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, capturing quiet moments of community resilience that never made national news. I looked for moments to document even when I wasn’t on assignment, listening for my neighbors’ untold stories.
By August 2020, the international press scrum had largely disappeared from the neighborhood. The community around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue turned their focus to transforming the intersection into a permanent memorial and site of ongoing protest.
When neighbors needed a break, they turned to water gun battles and double Dutch tournaments at the People’s Way. Documenting these lighter moments of joy and communion felt necessary when much of what the outside world saw at the memorial was protest and mourning.
In fall 2020, national attention returned to 38th Street and Chicago when several of George Floyd’s family members visited to celebrate what would have been his 47th birthday. I focused on a different birthday a few weeks later — that of memorial caretaker Jeanelle Austin.
On Dec. 23, 2020, an intense blizzard struck the Twin Cities. I wandered out to George Floyd Square to see how neighbors were caring for the memorial.
In the middle of the storm, resident Billy Briggs climbed a ladder to affix a new message to the sign at the People’s Way: a daily countdown until the trial for the murder of George Floyd was set to begin in March 2021.
As former officer Derek Chauvin stood trial for Floyd’s murder in April 2021, a renewed attention was focused on 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. Visitors from around the world descended on the intersection every day.
One night, I received a tip that a special visitor was in town: Fred Hampton Jr., son of the late Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, along with members of the Black Panther Party Cubs from Chicago.
One photo I made reminded me of Getty Images photographer Paul Sequeira’s iconic photo of Fred Hampton Sr.
At the same time as Fred Hampton Jr.’s visit, a storm rolled over Minneapolis. Before running for cover, I snapped a few images of an incredible lightning show above the memorial.
On April 11, 2021, a Brooklyn Center police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. That night, hundreds protested the killing in the northern Twin Cities suburb.
But back in south Minneapolis, residents near George Floyd Square mourned by adding Wright’s name to Chicago Avenue — a message that remains at the memorial to this day.
In 2022, I was hired to work full time at MPR News. As one of three full-time visual journalists on staff at MPR News, I am lucky to document the stories of Minnesotans across the entire state. It’s a position I don’t take for granted.
I still wrestle with the fact that I was afforded so many opportunities because of my proximity to a Black man’s murder and the pain that followed. I hope my work has been of service to the community members most impacted by Floyd’s death and everything that has come of it in the years since. In return, I’ve learned so much from them.
Covering the neighborhood around George Floyd Square has taught me that stories rooted in seeking justice, accountability and healing are not told in a day or on a given anniversary or by a single journalist.
This is why I’ve spent five years visiting the memorial site to just chat, observe and listen — sometimes arriving before dawn and staying until after the last of the media circus departs. The neighborhood where Floyd died is my home, too, and it’s the small, everyday moments that build the fabric of community.
