Capturing the Political Climate of 2017

As the Spring 2017 semester rolled around, marking the time to begin my Departmental Honors Project, I couldn’t ignore what was happening in the world around me, begging to be captured: the political climate of the Midwest following the election of Donald Trump. I decided to use my camera to capture the political unrest and divide that was happening around me. Attending the Women’s March in Chicago is what really spurred this idea; as I walked along Michigan Avenue and State Street alongside citizens holding signs reading “Dump the Trump,” “No Human is Illegal,” “Black Lives Matter,” and more, I snapped candid photos of the largest protest in the city’s history; I realized that I was living in an important and pivotal moment in history – and that I wanted to help document it. From there, I expanded the project out to include portraits of people who live in the United States and their words about how they’ve reacted to the election of Donald Trump.