Washington DC - ‘Hands Off’ Protest

Apr 6

Yesterday I woke up at 4am, caught a flight to DC, and was home by 8pm. I went both to participate in and also to photograph the nationwide Hands Off protest there. After Trump’s second inauguration I saw a set of pictures from a street photographer and was disappointed in myself for not being there. When the first real protest happened after two months of relative insanity I had a hunch I might fly in, and other than having a panic attack when I immediately couldn’t find coffee it was well worth it.

This was a broad coalition calling on the administration, DOGE, and Musk to keep in their lanes. The atmosphere was friendly and carnival-like: you might here a drum circle in one direction, over there a brass band, and over there a crowd chanting some classics. So the crowd milled and mixed, joyfully in a joyless time, and there was no counter-protest—apart from two individuals (shown later on) out of tens of thousands.

50mm, f/16
Other than a quick series I took in the National Gallery, this (above) was one of the last shots I took. It was one of a few dozen at a Free Palestine rally that broke off and was staging for the main protest to meet up with them and march to ICE headquarters.

50mm, f/16
I read a post from a street photographer who covered Hands Off NYC where he acknowledged protests are hard to cover. The crowds are dense and unwieldy, it’s difficult to convey the feeling through stills. And technically… a photograph is “supposed” to have a single subject. But personally I enjoy the above sort of image, where the subject isn’t distinct but at least a couple if not several things are happening and clearly portrayed. This one grabbed me but I had to choose from dozens like it. My favorite such composition I’ve taken is the women trying on Japanese robes at the MOBOT Japanese Festival, which you can see either in the ‘gallery’ tab or in the post I made on that festival.

50mm, f/16
The gentleman above was one of the two I mentioned that was there in counter-protest. And when I say it was tens of thousands on the one side and two on the other, in DC that is a precise breakdown.

Kenny Lackey

Washington DC - ‘Hands Off’ Protest

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