Les Miserables

A 2019 memorial for Philando Castille, who was shot to death by a police officer for driving while black less than a block from my home in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. They are trying to plant a “peace garden in his memory,” yet the Twin Cities is burning in the wake of another killing of a black man in police custody.

Beneath the face masks, behind the milk used to wash away the tear gas, you can see the rage that animated Victor Hugo’s classic work, Les Miserables. Minneapolis is on fire, enraged by the injustice of a white police officer who on Memorial Day callously pinned 46-year-old George Floyd, an African-American, to the ground with his knee. Officer Derek Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police force, ignored Floyd’s desperate pleas for help — “I can’t breate.” “Mama.” — for nearly nine minutes. He pinned Floyd to the pavement for nearly three minutes after he had passed out. He ignored a fellow officer who, worried about Floyd’s health, asked if they should turn him onto his side. Chauvin ignored the pleas of the growing crowd. Floyd died after being taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Now, Chauvin faces charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, as well as a federal investigation into the incident. His wife announced she was divorcing him. The city of Minneapolis erupted into flame. Protesters burned down the Third Precinct police building. Dozens of stores have been looted and torched. Rumors are running wild. Gov. Tim Walz, visibly shaken, has called in the Minnesota National Guard. Mayors across the Twin Cities have imposed curfews, which protesters ignored without consequence. More violence ensued. Now, President Donald Trump is threatening to bring in the military.

Victor Hugo saw this coming.

So what does this have to do with photography?

Photography is writing with light, but it is shadow that gives it form. When a strong light is blocked by an object it creates what we call “hard light.” It enhances texture, which works wonders on the bark of a tree or the wrinkles of an elder’s face. But it creates dissonance on the face of a young and beautiful model who looks forward to a life of love and plenty. Photographers can use that to create interest or intrigue. It might not suit a portait of a young mother and child, however, or the pimply face of a teenager. To create softer light, photographers push it through diffusion material, which stretches the penumbra — the line between light and dark — creating a gradual transition. Carried too far we call this flat lighting because it eliminates the shadows that make the image appear three dimensional.

Photography also takes place in time. It can freeze time or it can show movement through motion blur. It might then reflect a moment, or a period in which it was taken. Which brings me back to the convulsions erupting in Minneapolis and across the United States.

The photojournalists documenting the riots and their aftermath have risked their health and their lives to record these events. They have trained their eyes and their lenses on the carnage and the writhing humanity that is calling out for justice. They are shooting the raw, harsh light that dilineates the violence, and they are using the soft, diffused light to show the common grief of protesters and neighbors demanding peace and justice for George Floyd. I long to join my photojournalist colleagues but for a variety of personal and professional reasons, I am stuck at home. I realize, too, that I mostly want to make portraits., to penetrate the masks we all wear and display my subject’s essence. Yet that seems irrelevent now.

I fear what’s coming. Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Les Miserables, dies in the end. Victor Hugo makes his death palatable by resurrecting him into heaven. The conflict that claims his life coincides with the beginning of the French Revolution. The people cry, “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death.” Ultimately, a great many of them died so that we descendents would have our liberty. Alas, some more than others. Which brings me back to George Floyd and the protesters and rioters who call out his name.

“No justice, no peace,” their signs say. The destruction that got the world to pay attention to George Floyd’s death is dark indeed. It cuts like a bandsaw between black and white. and demands to know: Who’s side are you on?

Life has taught me that there are no sides, really. There is light and dark, and each contains within it the seeds of the other. What is done to one is done to us all. The family-owned drug store down the road from my house, which looters set afire, is no less innocent than was George Floyd. The looters stealing diapers and cigarettes from a corner store are no less human than the police officers who watched helplessly from across the street.

This cannot go on. And yet it has for hundreds of years. The darkness today will yield to light tomorrow and return in time to shadow. This is the human condition here on earth. Let’s hope there is a heaven where Jean Valjean and George Floyd are rejoicing as God frees all oppressed people. Until then, photographers must bear witness without fear or favor.