Baltimore Unrest in Photos

Honest and affecting photos documenting Baltimore in the midst of the Freddie Gray protests. The photography and audio recordings are the work of Edwin Torres, a reporting and photography fellow who’s been working with us in the ProPublica newsroom this summer.

Speaking personally, I find myself particularly drawn to Edwin’s photo of a press corps cordoned off by police just after curfew. Venturing outside the cordon meant risking arrest. Staying inside meant submitting to a restricted point of view.

To me, this photo captures a power dynamic between “authority” and “media” so succinctly it might just constitute one of the best media commentaries of the year.

Credit on production for the accompanying audio goes to Emily Martinez, ProPublica’s first-ever design fellow. It was her suggestion to incorporate Edwin’s recordings, and I’m so glad we did. They add an extra texture and dimension to the work, reinforcing a sense of time and place.

I’m incredibly pleased with how this piece came together, and how much our visual and design vocabulary has grown in the past year—not to mention the groundwork we’re laying for what’s to come.