Our Man at the G20 (#1): Behind The Protest

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Over the coming week, BAGnewsNotes will be looking at last week’s G20 protests in a way, we believe, that defies conventional thinking.

Looking through the lens of photographer Jason Andrew, who was on the ground for us, we hope to raise some provocative issues about the perception and relevance of street demonstrations in 2009 America; the nature of the police/security response; and the value of the documentation by the media.

To begin our inquiry, we offer four girls on a roof doing a little drinking while hanging out on Friday night. In the foreground, we see shadows representing a bevy of photographers taking their picture. …So what made these girls an attraction to the photographers? And more specifically, what is it about the girls as subject matter to the other photographers that caught Jason’s attention?

In their nonchalance (which is strangely paired with the curious orientation of the photographers), the girls are watching demonstrators clashing with riot police and getting pepper sprayed.

(image: ©Jason Andrew/BAGnewsNotes. Pittsburgh, PA., September 25, 2009)