TAMPA, Fla. — When you see a picture for the first time, you have no idea who pressed the shutter. Photography can be a great equalizer when it comes to race and representation.
For Black History Month, ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska sat down with two Black photographers. Both use their images to inspire and educate. One is a professional wildlife photographer, and the other is a commercial photographer who grabbed her camera to document the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd.
We first met with wildlife and conservation photographer George McKenzie Jr. deep in the Florida wildlife corridor.
"For you, what does Black History Month mean?" Paluska asked McKenzie Jr.
"It's a really good time for me to reflect on the fact that I'm living my ancestors' wildest dreams, you know, and being able to highlight Black excellence," McKenzie Jr. said. "Being a Black American is such a privilege in my book; I get to live and do things in a country where I can honestly do it. Look at where I live. Dude like, if you Google Lake Placid, Florida, it's not the most racially diverse place. However, I get to live here, live my dream here, and I get to meet amazing people that all of them don't look like me."
McKenzie Jr. is also a National Geographic Explorer and dedicates his life to photography.
"I'm not saying I'm the only one of my kind. However, this is what I do. I don't do anything else. It's not a side hustle to me. It's not a hobby. This is my life," McKenzie Jr. said. "I'm the Live Wildly Adventurist. I am a natural explorer. I'm an Explorers Club member. I'm a Black wildlife photographer from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn; I think I'm the only one from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn."
Our interview with Ashley Canay Morrow was in the parking lot of the Champs store across from University Mall. The Champs was set on fire during the protests, burning part of the strip mall to the ground.
During the civil unrest in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, she grabbed her camera to document history.
"What impact do you think your camera made that night?" Paluska asked.
"I think this camera—this camera right here—I think it allowed people that may not have been able to come out there, I think it gave them the ability to see from my perspective, a Black woman's perspective, what was happening outside. I started to wrangle up other Black photographers because I feel like even in the Civil Rights Movement, a lot of Black photographers, if there were that many photographing that movement, were given that much exposure," Morrow said. "What Black History Month means to me: representation. I know people say don't, you know, do either token or don't grab somebody just because they're Black, but sometimes that's what has to happen in order for people to see people that look like them in certain industries, to see Black radiologists, to see Black dentists, to see all these different professions Black people work in, and have been working in for, for a very long time."
