《两张照片的故事

朱莉娅·哈尔普林·杰克逊著

一群学生抗议者的黑白照片.
封面图片 斯巴达式的日常 1992年5月1日. 图片来源:Marcio J. Sanchez.

Two photographs, taken nearly 30 years apart, tell the story of Marcio桑切斯’s career 作为一名摄影记者.

The first, a 从上面拍摄的黑白照片，显示了一群学生抗议者. 在中间，一个年轻的黑人拿着他的 arm protectively around a Black woman, one arm outstretched as if responding to a 戴反棒球帽的白人. 

The 斯巴达式的日常 headline above reads “Protest erupts into violence.“用小小的字母， 右下角的照片是马尔西奥·J. 桑切斯-每日工作人员摄影师. 

It was Friday, May 1, 1992, days after the police officers accused of assaulting Rodney 洛杉矶的金被无罪释放. 据《lol菠菜网正规平台》报道，抗议者采取了行动 the streets, not only in Southern California, but across the country, and at San José State University, where Sanchez was studying photojournalism. 

Having seen the infamous video footage of King that ignited a national dialogue about police brutality, Sanchez dropped what he was doing and immediately traveled to LA 在行动中捕捉历史. 

Marcio桑切斯.Marcio J. Sanchez.

Born in Honduras, Sanchez and his family had moved to Lynwood, a community not far from Watts, where the LA riots began in the hours following the acquittal. Motivated to witness the truth, Sanchez slipped into the crowds with his camera, snapping many photographs like the one that later made the 斯巴达式的日常 front page.

“这些照片 made my career,” says Sanchez, ’07 Photojournalism. “这些照片 帮我找到了实习机会. 我的报道获得了一些当地奖项. That 是我的kickstarter. I realized then that this was the kind of work I wanted to be doing.”

Not long after leaving 菠菜网lol正规平台, Sanchez accepted his first full-time job as a photographer for the Kansas City Star, where he stayed for seven years. 多年来，他的工作 has been published in The New York Times, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek 和国家地理. In 2002, he became a staff photographer for the Associated Press.

Whether he was covering wildlife preservation in Africa, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, baseball in the Dominican Republic, the Super Bowl in the United States, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver or the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Sanchez resolved to use his camera to accomplish one main goal: to inform the public — to be the people’s eyes.

“The role of the photojournalist is to be a complete storyteller without any bias,” he says. “It is very important, especially in a politically charged situation, to 不偏袒任何一方，在一个没有情绪的环境中工作. 你必须顺其自然 tell its own story without you explaining what you perceive.”

改变了一切的框架

This ability to produce quality work under pressure came in handy in July 2020, when Sanchez joined his colleagues in Portland, Oregon, to cover Black Lives Matter protests 乔治·弗洛伊德被谋杀后.

At the time, President Donald Trump had sent federal agents to Portland until, as he described, city officials “secured their city.” 

What Sanchez saw was more like mayhem: molotov cocktails, commercial-grade fireworks and canned beans were being thrown over the concrete fence that separated protesters 出自马克O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, and federal agents were spraying 橡皮子弹和化学刺激物. 有一次，他被喷了胡椒喷雾 face.

就是在这一幕之后 他拍下了获奖的照片. It features a bald woman in a gas mask, glasses, tank top, jeans and sandals propped 靠着混凝土栅栏. 空气中有一团看起来像是催泪瓦斯的云 and a poster that reads “Black Lives Matter” above her head.

“It was, technically speaking, a difficult picture to make,” says Sanchez. “It was my fifth or sixth day covering the protests and it was almost pitch dark. I had to 利用我相机的功能来拍照.

“The positioning of the woman and everything around her immediately caught my eye. She was surrounded by a lot of screaming, yelling and commotion. 我不认为她 was trying to shield herself from gas or smoke so much as create a gesture to say 她在混乱中是一个平和的人. 我有机会去捕捉 what I thought was a very pointed moment in a chaotic environment.”

Sanchez says that the AP was one of the only news outlets to access the federal building that day. Their team captured what it felt like both from the protesters’ and the 联邦探员的观点.

“我意识到自己的责任. 我们是唯一有能力的团队 从两个方面讲述故事.”

Not only did his image tell a complex and compelling story, it made history. 他的照片, along with work by his AP colleagues Noah Berger, Alex Brandon, Ringo H.W. 赵,科特斯, Frank Franklin II, David Goldman, John Minchillo, Mike Stewart and Evan Vucci, won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in June 2021. 

“The Pulitzer Prize is beyond my wildest dreams,” Sanchez says. “我们站在最前线 作为摄影师的历史. I don’t do this for awards; my main satisfaction comes 从告知公众. 

“When you think about people who have won the prize, it’s John F.  肯尼迪，马克·吐温， 欧内斯特·海明威，现在轮到我了. 这就是我们所在的公司 历史上最伟大的记者.”

改变形象，改变历史

Sanchez is the first Honduran-born journalist to win a Pulitzer. 这个意义 难道他不明白吗.

“I remember my childhood friends having to flee their country and seek asylum in the U.S., many of them working professionals who had to start over because of all the 国内的冲突，”他说. “看到我的同胞如此自豪，让我有一种 我的民族自豪感来自那里.”

Reflecting on his career, he can’t help thinking about those early days covering the 金还是圣何塞州立大学的学生时就在抗议. 他把这归功于他的lol菠菜网正规平台摄影教授 Jim McNay, who often brought professional photojournalists to campus, with laying 关键的基础.

学生抗议者挽着手游行.
菠菜网lol正规平台 Students held hands and chanted "No justice, no peace.图片来源:Marcio J. Sanchez

“I did not realize the full transformation that 菠菜网lol正规平台 made upon me until I saw the 帕帕济安总统的推特祝贺我 [on winning the Pulitzer] and saying ‘Spartan Up,’” he says. “我非常专业 direction at San José State — professors who said, ‘Follow this blueprint and you’ll 是成功的.’”

“A few months after graduating, I landed my first full-time job at a major metropolitan newspaper. 这说明了什么? 上面说圣何塞州立大学马上让我做好了准备， right from the moment I stepped off the stage at Tower Hall. 一切都圆满了 circle.”