Women's March

The day has come. The day I finally am going to give you my two sense on the Women's Marches that happened all over the world the last two years during January. Without further ado, please enjoy the photos I took and my artist statement about why I did what I did:

A lot of things sucked at the beginning of 2017. Most notably, I had just found out my precious pup had cancer and Donald Trump was about to become president. I had been dreading inauguration day since election night, but when it finally came things looked a little bit up for the first time. Millions of women—and supportive men—around the the world marched for equality. It didn’t change the fact that a super-callous-fragile-racist-sexist-nazi-bigot was about to become POTUS, but it did give me a sense of unity with each and every person protesting.

I was at home that weekend in a town of roughly a thousand people. The closest march was about an hour away; so, instead of standing in solidarity with my sister or my friends or professors or even complete strangers at the marches they attended, I marched down my mile-long driveway with my dog, Sugar. She didn’t understand what she was marching for, but on her three working legs she stood for everything that the women (and other pups) I marched with this year in Sioux Falls (all 2500 of them!!!) do: love, equality, and perseverance.

I wanted to do this project because I believe it is important to document historic events. In 25 or 50 years when the entire country looks back at the presidency of Donald Trump, I want them to remember that not everybody agreed with him. If the Trump administration pushes its dictatorship-like qualities further, I want photos of a resistance to be in existence to help fuel the next one. Because of this, I decided to crop the photos in a narrow fashion so that they might appear more like a documentary.

I also thought it was important to show that the march is more than just showing up for an hour or two one day a year. Resistance takes time and energy. There must be people to make the posters and there must be people set up to plan, lead, and speak. And, while social media is a great platform in which people can find their voices, there needs to be more than an instagram post to make a difference. I wanted photos that showed people participating in a democracy, so that even just one more person would be inspired to participate in our democracy themselves.

As a journalism major, I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment. I am glad these people have voices and stand up for things they—and I—believe in. You should stand up for what you believe in, too.

//024