Occupy Boston (2011)
I had been reading the paper and watching the television coverage with a huge amount of interest. On September 17, 2011, Occupy Wall Street had began an occupation of New York City’s Zuccotti Park. A few weeks later, the Occupy movement came to my hometown of Boston Massachusetts, and moved into Dewey Square, directly across the street from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. When I heard of the local occupation I packed my camera gear together, jumped into the car, and headed downtown to get a first hand look at Occupy Boston’s newly erected tent city.
The Occupy movement, which originally took it's inspiration from The Arab Spring, was an international populist, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the lack of perceived "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and new forms of democracy. The movement had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included how large corporations (and the global financial system) control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and causes instability.
Soon after arriving at Dewey Square I began to feel an affinity with the movement, and I would return day after day to photograph tent life, group meetings, workshops, speeches, demonstrations, and marches that were taking place on a daily basis. As I spent more and more time in the tent city I began to feel that the methods being used to bring about productive change were not working as successfully as they could. A gulf seemed to be forming between those living in the tents who felt that everyone should dropout of their current lifestyle and commit full-time to the movement, and those who supported the movement, but could not, for a variety of reasons, commit 100% to the cause.
We all knew it was inevitable, but I still felt a touch of sadness when on December 10, 2011, exactly two months after the occupation of Dewey Square began, Boston Police moved in and raided Occupy Boston’s temporary tent city, arrested 46 people, and removed any signs that the movement in Boston had ever existed.
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