My Lens, Our Ferguson

Abstract

A protester shows his scars during the Ferguson protests days after Brown's killing in 2014. (Adrian Octavius Walker) (Mancy Gant) Adrian Octavius Walker is a mixed-media artist based in Chicago, by way of St. Louis, Missouri. His work is inspired by the Black body, dynamics of the Black family, and archival work related to the African American experience and the untold stories they share. Working in both film and digital-format photography, Walker creates penetrating portraits influenced by his deep awareness of the nuances that pervade the human experience. “After the uprising and amid the chaos, I found my creative voice during the time we were hurting the most. Beyond the extreme overpolicing by the city of Ferguson, we as people found a way to come together as one and rejoice in the name of Mike Brown. I was documenting one of the most televised uprisings in history, and I managed to learn what we can do once we are together as a community. Unity sparks change, and that was my main goal to photograph just that.” “‘Still here,’ to me, means still processing. The Ferguson uprising is something we will never forget. Our city changed right before our eyes, and a great majority of us are still mourning.” A protester shows his scars during the Ferguson protests days after Brown's killing in 2014. (Adrian Octavius Walker) Adrian Octavius Walker, untitled, 2014. Photograph. From Walker's self-published My Lens, Our Ferguson (2015), a book of photos taken during the days after Mike Brown's death. The book is “for people that want to own a piece of history showing real-life, emotion, and truth. . . . My hopes were for the people to keep and share the story of Ferguson with future generations.”