Yesterday, I went out to photograph the protests in Washington, D.C. during Trump's inauguration. I'm a professional freelance photographer, and I had never really taken a stab at photojournalism before, so this seemed like a good time to try.
The UC Davis pepper spray incident was national news. Memes were generated from the resulting photos, which spread across the Web like wildfire in the wake of the events of that November day in 2011. But according to new reports, UC Davis has since spent tens upon tens of thousands of dollars to try and scrub that event from Internet history.
On Monday, two professional photographers were robbed of their camera gear in broad daylight in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. The two suspects were reportedly armed with pepper spray, and they made off with equipment worth over $7,000.
Photos of the clash between the Turkish government and the country's people have been trickling down from many sources. Even as news outlets are accused of remaining purposely ignorant of the matter, professional and amateur photographers alike have taken to Facebook and other social media sites to spread the word and show the world what is happening.
But one of those images -- one depicting a "lady in red" non-threateningly holding her ground as she gets blasted with pepper spray by a police officer -- has become more than a mere photo, rising to the status of "symbol."
Jasna Hodzic, the photo editor of the student run newspaper at UC Davis, has been covering the Occupy UC Davis movement since its inception -- before the pepper spraying incident became international news.