Occupy Wall Street for Bill Magazine

Last night I rode past Zuccotti park in lower Manhattan only to find a handful of protesters representing the Occupy Wall Street movement at it’s physical birthplace. But on October 15 of last year it was a very different scene. Looking back, that day seemed to represent the peak of the entire movement. There were coordinated marches all over the world and everyone but the crazy Italians in Rome stayed peaceful.

Speaking of crazy Italians, I was on assignment that day for Bill Magazine. Bill is a new quarterly publication produced by Tita about the way we communicate in the 21st century. They asked me to photograph all the protesters with their signs. Since picket signs are one of the few remaining old-school forms of expression, I thought it would be an interesting take on the magazine’s theme.

I started in the park early that morning and brought my normal lighting setup. There was so much chaos that day that most people didn’t even seem to notice my lights swaying in the wind above their heads. In the early afternoon I found myself in the middle of Times Square, apparently surrounded by an estimated 125,000 protesters.