A collection of poignant shots from the Occupy movement, taken with an iPhone or other smartphone cameras: front-line views on an event that is not getting the coverage it deserves in mainstream media.
Thanks to the technological advancements of the last 15 years, including the development of image sensors capable of taking photos in low-light conditions, camera phones have become more and more important as tools that can turn each of us into a reporter. With the right apps, a current generation smartphone like the iPhone becomes a portable media center — you can take, process, and publish your photos on the spot in a few minutes. These devices become source of first-hand testimony on events that are either ignored or misrepresented by mainstream media sources. The wave of protests against the political and financial elites that is spreading throughout the globe are a prime example of this.
The Occupy Wall Street movement “officially” started on Semptember 17th, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, a publicly accessible park in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The protestors, coming from the most heterogeneous walks of life, grouped around a slogan, “We are the 99%”, which refers to the difference in wealth in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. And wealth, in capitalistic societies, translates directly into political power — thus, those that should reform the society are the same that are benefiting from the unequal distribution of wealth. The wealthy own the media, the flow of information, and they shape the destiny of a nation using their money.
Continue reading “Occupy Wall Street Seen Through a Camera Phone”
