Aug. 30: Week in Photography

 Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs.

📸 MOST POWERFUL PHOTO OF THE WEEK 📸

Kerem Yücel / AFP via Getty Images

In a summer defined by protests against police brutality and racial injustice, the shooting of Jacob Blake by police set off yet another wave of both peaceful demonstrations and violent nights — and along with them, the same calls for equality and for systemic change, and the same accusations of rioting. 

During the unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a teenager shot and killed two people in a crowd, and injured another. The Black Lives Matter protests, meanwhile, inspired a wildcat strike across two major sports leagues, highlighting again the differing views of what the future of America should look like. It's a lot to take in. It's easy to feel numb, to look away, to assume it's someone else's problem.

But here's the thing — as this frame by Kerem Yücel for the AFP highlights so well — no matter how tired people are, no matter how cynical, these protests aren't going to stop happening until people feel heard and seen by society, and until they feel like they're being treated equally.

📸For Your 👀 Only:

GABRIEL SANCHEZ SAYS GOODBYE

For the past four years, I've had the pleasure of working with Gabriel Sanchez on the photo desk at BuzzFeed News, looking at photos and putting together posts for JPG. After over 2,000 stories, I am sad to say that he will be leaving us for a new post elsewhere. For his last interview, we turned the table, and I asked Gabriel to talk about the work that he's done here, and what makes a good photo editor. 

WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE BFN? WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE?

In 2014 I had just completed graduate school and I was writing reviews for Artforum and Aperture, which is a lot more theoretical focused on fine art and conceptual art. At the time, [former editor-in-chief] Ben Smith was interested in the idea of a photo story that blends highbrow and lowbrow, and he was looking for someone who had an appreciation for photography and also who could write critically about it so that we could blend these elements with something that is viral, the listicle-esque concept.

Andrew Seng, "The Casual Racism of Everyday Objects"

So I applied, and I guess the rest is history. That frame was developed over the course of six years. It definitely wasn’t something that we hit the ground running with. It was a little bit of a rough start. At the beginning, it was interesting to see our readership, who maybe wasn’t familiar with the idea that BuzzFeed would cover photographers, or fine art. They kind of thought that if it wasn’t, like, a Rugrats meme, that it was a troll. It was very confusing for a lot of people at the time, and we sort of had to work through that and gain our readers' trust to show them that we are thoughtful in the way that we approach photo essays and build stories around photography. 

HOW DID YOUR WORK AT ARTFORUM INFORM YOUR WORK AT BFN?

I think one thing I took away from working at Artforum was the idea of being let into the world of the artist. I didn't write too often about photography. I wrote about paintings and sculptures. Oftentimes when I see a work of art, especially in the fine art, conceptual world, it's confusing to me, and I think that's a good thing — it gives me a chance to enter their world and really wrap my head around what they’re trying to do, what they’re trying to say, the materials they’re using. With my work at BuzzFeed, we’ve covered almost every topic imaginable, and these aren’t necessarily topics that I'm an expert at, but I approach them all in the same way, which is listening and being empathetic, being open to be let into their world. I think if you come with sincerity, and genuine fascination, you can be able to tell a good story with pictures.

WHAT WAS ONE OF THE HARDEST STORIES THAT YOU HAD TO EDIT?

I guess the hardest essays that I had to produce were during a time of prolonged gun violence, which obviously is still taking place in America — but there was a time when it felt like there was a mass shooting every other week. I think that is something that all photo editors have to deal with, finding that balance of the emotional impact of seeing these images all day — literally your entire day — and trying to still tell the stories of people’s suffering and pain and then being able to share that empathetically with readers who maybe aren’t familiar with these stories or haven’t been impacted personally. For a reader, they see the story, they’re impacted while they read it, and they think about it at night or whatever, but you know the photo editor has spent an entire day working on that photo story for optimal emotional impact, and for a while it did get to me. That can be one of the most difficult aspects of this for sure.

OK McClausland, "Inside New York's Underground Gun Club" 

ANY ADVICE FOR A PHOTO EDITOR STARTING OUT?

One of the things that kept me motivated is to find joy in photography. Don't forget what attracted you to the field and the work that you do in the first place. It's a very bold, audacious thing to do, to decide that you’re going to go to college to take pictures or that you want to study photography, but the reason that we’re here is that we love photography, we love looking at pictures, and we have this passion for it. It is a job to be a photo editor, and sometimes the days are long and the pictures are hard to look at, but when it comes down to it, you have to remind yourself why you do it, and find joy in it. So don’t forget that photography is fun and beautiful. 

WHERE DO YOU GO FOR INSPIRATION?

BuzzFeed.com

[laughs] THANKS, BUT FOR REAL?

I really do think that BuzzFeed has a tremendous eye for photography and I'm inspired by your work. I'm inspired by other editors in the newsroom, and I'm constantly looking at it. It’s where I get my photography from. 

I would say that for a long time I would go to galleries and I would stop by openings. I love looking at photography that is not meant to tell a straight story or is a bit more abstract or difficult to enter, that gives me a challenge. But obviously, the galleries aren’t open right now. 

HOW WAS IT WORKING ON THE INTERNET?

I love working on the internet, first of all. I love building photo essays on the internet because it became a forum. It wasn’t this monolithic thing. Instead, there was a comments section and reader tweets, and it felt like we built an arena around these stories. I think that the internet is the best thing to happen to photo essays since the start of photography.

Gabriel Sanchez, "What It's Like To Give Birth In A Pandemic" 

YOU’VE PUBLISHED OVER 2,000 PHOTO STORIES FOR BUZZFEED NEWS. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE?

On a personal level, it was a time when I was behind the camera, documenting the birth of [my son] Diego. A lot of things had to come into place all at once, and it was at a time when expecting mothers didn't have too much information about what it was like to give birth during this time. We were looking online, and there was really nothing, truly nothing, that gave any sense of what it was like to have a child in the middle of a pandemic. Photographers clearly weren’t allowed into these spaces. The only people who were allowed were the fathers of these babies, and I realized that I would have access that no one else really does, and everything lined up. That's a very personal photo essay for me.

On the other hand, and something more fun, was a recent photo essay that we did where we interviewed Joel Meyerowitz. At the end of the interview, I wrapped my last question and he was like, ‘Wait, where are you going?’ And I was like, ‘Um, I’m logging off, going to write the story?’ And he was like, ‘I’m not done. You want to hang out?’ So we actually hung out and talked about the joys of photography. It was one of my last stories for BuzzFeed, and it drove home why I loved my job, where I got to meet these incredible artists and talk about photography and tell stories through pictures. It was just a fantastic full-circle moment. 

I’ll definitely miss looking at such a huge array of photography. I don’t think I'll ever have a job again where I look at so many different topics. For such a small team, we covered everything, from fine art to photojournalism to science to food — every aspect, we did it.

Joel Meyerowitz, "Iconic Photos From The History of Street Photography"

 📸THE WEEK'S PHOTO STORIES FROM BUZZFEED NEWS 📸

It's impossible to summarize this week, to be honest. I highly encourage looking at this week's photo story roundup, and getting some rest. 

Find more of the week's best photo stories here.

A LOOK AT THE KENOSHA PROTESTS

Brandon Bell / Getty Images

DRAMATIC PHOTOS SHOW THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY HURRICANE LAURA

David J. Phillip / AP 

PEOPLE PROTESTED OUTSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE WHILE THE TRUMP FAMILY WATCHED FIREWORKS

Jose Luis / AFP via Getty Images

📸SOME HOPE 📸

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

"That's it from us this time — see you next week!" —Kate

📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Gabriel Sanchez is the photo essay editor based in New York and loves cats. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs.  You can always reach us here.

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