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This Blog Post is a Continuation of a past post on August 11th, 2014 which was featured in USA Today
LINK to the past Blog Post is HERE: http://www.christianklee.com/blog/2014/8/11/ferguson-protest-blog
Tear gassed twice, Pepper Sprayed Once and still managed to see well enough to continue this project. I have been documenting the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri since it all started in early August up until now without any riot gear or gas mask. Which I have paid for on several occasions.
The first time I was tear gassed as a bystander, I felt like a super hero, because even though I got hit with a good dose of gas, it took about a 7 second delay before I felt the full effect. This gave me enough time to snap off a few more images. I would later pay for it. I quickly became a victim as my eyes burned so bad that I could not see, and I also gagged as a result to being exposed. People helped me by washing chemicals from my face with liquids that they had brought with them. I was particularly surprised at how helpful the protestors were due to the violent image that they had often been portrayed in. Initially, I felt vulnerable hoping that I would not be robbed for my camera, however that was not the case and I was helped on several occasion by people from different racial backgrounds.
The level of violence rose dramatically from when I had documented it in early August. This was due to International media attention that drew out larger crowds.
I was initially scared to document this part of the story because I knew the unrest would be more violent, however I continued to document because I did not want to tell a uninformed story.
The problem with documenting a Breaking Story is finding the story. Protestors continually move from location to location, so I have discovered that in order to be a good journalist you must also be a great researcher. I had to continuously research the web to find exactly where the story would be in real time. One of the most memorable images I took was of a female protestor who was clearing the streets immediately after a police car was burned to the ground. That image was my favorite because it was iconic. In my opinion, this means that the image had an aesthetic quality that symbolized the complete story of the protestors in Ferguson, Mo.
The burning car in the background of that image symbolizes the violence of angry protestor and the protestor with her hands up symbolized the peacefulness of other protestors. Here is the image.
