Whitney Curtis has covered Ferguson, Mo., for The New York Times since the day Michael Brown was shot and killed by a local police officer a year ago. Her photos of the protests that followed were published on the front page of The Times, and in many other publications around the world. And they were featured on Lens.
For the last few weeks she has been photographing in Ferguson, looking for what has changed, and what has not, over the last year. She spoke with James Estrin earlier this week about her recent experiences there. The conversation has been edited.
What have you been doing in Ferguson during the last few weeks?
I’ve been trying to document the changes from a year ago, and also just show the daily life that’s returned back to normal.
What did you find?
I’ve been going there often over the past year, so any changes that I have seen have been gradual. Quite a few businesses in Ferguson have been burned down. They sat in rubble for months, and gradually those businesses were razed. Many on West Florissant Avenue are now just concrete slabs.
What is different from what you saw a year ago?
It’s the calm; it’s quiet. People are going about their daily lives. With the exception of some of the businesses and buildings that burned down, visually, I imagine Ferguson to be the same as it was on Aug. 8.
Other than visually?
I think people held their own opinions a year ago, but they’re even more firmly entrenched in their opinions now.
I don’t know if it’s a racial divide or an economic divide, but some people are firmly on the side of law enforcement and the local government and the justice system. And they believe that not much really needs to change.
And then there are others that believe that change needs to happen and hasn’t happened yet in Ferguson. Some people believe change is slowly happening, but maybe not as quickly as they would like.
What are some examples of changes that have happened?
I don’t see as many police out on the street, and residents have told me that they are not being pulled over as much.
There have been changes made to the local government. This past April, the city of Ferguson voted in African-American City Council members. The city has also brought in a new (interim) city manager and an interim police chief.
But quite honestly, I don’t sense many dramatic changes there.
How did you approach looking for the comparisons between a year ago and now?
What I’ve experienced there, and what I wanted to show, was that there haven’t been protests going on and or national TV on the ground, but people are going about their daily lives and just trying to live in the community.
One huge change that I have noticed is in the apartments where Michael Brown was killed. They’ve lost about 50 percent of the residents in those apartments. The apartment complex is tucked back into this neighborhood; there are lots of trees around. There is an eerie quietness to it.
Where else did you go in Ferguson?
I went back to the memorial. That’s changed pretty dramatically.
The memorial was in the middle of the road and filled with candles and teddy bears. It stayed there for quite some time but was taken down along with the stuffed-animal memorial that was around the light post next to it. Then, part of the road was paved over, and two plaques were put in place to memorialize Michael Brown.
I spent a lot of time along West Florissant Avenue, where some of the businesses had disappeared. The QuikTrip, which was a convenience store and gas station, was burned on Aug. 10.
What was this like for you personally?
I don’t recall photographing the protests last August as a very traumatic experience, but it was definitely a very stressful experience. I think going back was very quiet.
Recently, I would try to go to Ferguson in the very-early-morning hours, when the light was beautiful, or later in the evening, and the quietness and the calmness were extremely disconcerting. The chaos is almost more comforting.
What do you mean, the quiet was disconcerting?
It made me think, and pause, and stop. Last August, I didn’t have time for that. I had to think on my feet and keep moving. Coming back has given me an opportunity to reflect on what happened.
In what way?
I’m trying to be hopeful that there will be change coming out of this after all of the unrest. I’m hoping that there’s change coming out of such a tragic event, but it’s hard sometimes, and being a resident of St. Louis, I’m not that optimistic.
Change may not happen as quickly as some might hope. Working on this story helped me better understand my community, and as a white woman, it’s helped me understand the institutional racism that exists in the St. Louis community.
Since I moved there eight years ago, I’ve viewed St. Louis as a segregated city, but I guess I never fully realized the different facets of a community where that segregation exists: in housing, in justice, in the police, in education. It was something I was aware of, but something I hadn’t thought of often.
When you look back at your own experiences a year ago in Ferguson, what do you remember?
I remember going out there that first night and just being really unsure of what was happening in front of my eyes, and what was going to happen.
I didn’t know this story would spur so many protests and so many discussions around the country involving race in America.
How often have you gone back to Ferguson during the last year?
Probably a hundred times. At least a third of the year.
There must be a lot of people you recognize and have talked to many times?
Yes. There were a great deal of protesters who were in Ferguson who don’t live in Ferguson and I haven’t seen since November, but there is definitely a core group of local protesters and local activists who return again and again.
Is there something that those who have never been to Ferguson would not have learned from media reports?
After talking to friends outside the journalism business about their perceptions of Ferguson, it saddens me a little bit. Maybe I haven’t done my job properly in showing this city accurately.
In August there was so much action going on in the street, and there were so many striking images. It’s much more difficult to go back and photograph just the daily life of residents there.
Ferguson is a suburb, a small city surrounded by a bunch of other very small cities in St. Louis County. The streets aren’t filled with protesters. There are people going about their daily lives.
Is it a fairly poor city?
No, it’s divided. There are some very beautiful homes in certain neighborhoods. But those neighborhoods are predominantly white. There are other middle-class homes that are just off West Florissant Avenue that are simpler homes without big lawns. Those are mostly owned by middle-aged or older African-Americans.
Looking back, what have you learned from covering Ferguson?
I think one of the biggest things that I’ve taken away from covering this story while living in the area is that we, as journalists, need to be sensitive to the communities that we’re covering. It was a little upsetting to watch members of the national and international media come in last year and then leave all of a sudden when things calmed down. That attitude of much of the media toward the community reminded me that when I go out and cover stories in other communities or in other countries, I need to have the most empathy possible. Any community that I end up in should be treated like my own.
Follow @whitcurtisphoto, @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook and Instagram.
