News feed
Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters via Instagram
Taken outside the Baton Rouge police headquarters during a protest against the shooting of Alton Sterling in Louisiana, New Orleans-based photographer for Reuters Jonathan Bachman has captured what is being widely-lauded as the defining image of the Black Lives Matter movement.
More than 130 protestors were arrested during Saturday’s protests, including prominent activist and organiser, Deray McKesson. The woman in the photograph – mother to a five-year-old son – was reportedly detained after she refused to move to the sidewalk, and was released earlier this morning.
After Bachman’s photograph began to gain traction on social media, news outlets around the world were quick to anoint it with icon status. Bachman has since told Buzzfeed News, “I photographed someone arguing with an officer and then I looked over my shoulder and saw her there and she had every intention of not moving,” he said.
“She just stood there and made her stand. I was just happy to be able to capture something like that… She was there, she wasn’t resisting, and she had every intention of not moving”
On July 5 last week, Alton Sterling was shot by two white police officers at point blank range while he was pinned to the ground in front of the Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge, leading the Federal Department of Justice to open a civil rights investigation. Another man, Philando Castile, was shot dead by a police officer during a traffic stop in St. Paul, Minnesota, which was followed soon after by a sniper attack during protests in Dallas that left five police officers dead.
Cover image: Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images
