When considering recent state violence in the United States and Brazil, some issues are remarkably similar while others are very culturally specific. Photojournalist Shay Horse, who covers civil rights and human rights in the US, also reported on the same topics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Here, he approaches questions of current state violence, support for authoritarianism, and public resistance through a photo essay spanning both countries. Rather than focusing on immediately obvious continuities between Brazil and the United States, Shay Horse meditates on analogous emotions and visual symbols from the events he witnessed. With photos from different hemispheres that both juxtapose and blend together, this contribution allows for complex readings across cultural contexts.
After recounting the story behind each photo in the collection, Shay Horse speaks to the larger issues that come up in his work.
During a protest on June 12th, 2014, the first day of the World Cup. Rio de Janeiro, between Candelária and Lapa.
“The black block would burn and destroy Brazilian flags as an open sign of defiance. As an American in a foreign country for the first time, it was interesting to see people say, ‘fuck this state.’ I had never seen that before, though I’ve seen people destroy American flags. Ever since Occupy Wall Street, it’s become more and more regular.”
After results were called on the night of the 2016 presidential election. 6th Avenue, New York City.
“It was such a brazen sign of victory from a very particular class of people. This is an expensive, bright, shiny new Hummer, and the people are driving up the street waving American flags and Trump flags, screaming ‘Go Trump!’ It’s a perfect metaphor.”
At a protest against the World Cup on June 21st, 2014. Rio de Janeiro, between Praça Saens Pena and Maracanã Stadium.
“The military police provoked a riot. I noticed that they have a tactic in Brazil. For protests they feel might get heavy, they’ll toss out flash bangs and percussion grenades and tear-gas around 100 feet from the protest as a sign of intimidation. Like, ‘If you guys keep going, this is what we’re going to start using.’ And it just provoked the crowd. It’s one of the most violent situations I’ve ever been in. Essentially, the cops kept provoking protesters, and then there was a confrontation on the highway near Saens Pena. People used molotov cocktails. One of them knocked out the power for the streetlights. After that happened it was just insanity for two and a half hours, with cops chasing people through the streets using flash bangs and rubber bullets, pulling handguns and shooting off rounds. After one of the confrontations I saw those two people treating each other. It was a weird, tender moment in such a violent situation.”
At the January 20th (J20) protests against Trump’s inauguration in 2017. Near Franklin Square, Washington DC.
“January 20th was the inauguration day for Donald Trump, and people really wanted to have a lot of protests that set the tone that no one was okay with Trump. And there was one protest where things got hectic. A few windows got broken, and then the police just started hurting people, corralling them through the streets. They’ve since testified to corralling people. They were using flash bangs and pepper spray guns that they called ‘super soakers.’ Towards the end, things just got really intense. People didn’t know where to go, what to do. It was just people moving. That’s why I took the photo. It was a perfect example of the moment. People just moving, trying to find safety. I and over 230 other people where trapped on a street corner of L St. and 12th St. in DC, not that far from the White House. Personally, I was detained there for six or seven hours. And then the police started a side incident on K St., which became a war zone. The cops pepper sprayed a small child and things just exploded. Cops used what seemed like dozens of flash bangs at once. I was trapped on a street corner around a block away and all I could hear werethe booms. Boom. Boom. Boom. And people screaming. You could hear hundreds of feet hitting the pavement, people just trying to get out of the way.”
At a protest against the World Cup on June 21st, 2014. Rio de Janeiro, between Praça Saens Pena and Maracanã Stadium.
“I took that photo after the riot that the military police provoked near Maracanã Stadium. People were just reacting to the violence. I saw protesters run up to windows and use poles and rocks and stones to break them. That guy did it in such a particular way. It was almost a movie moment, where someone does something so confidently and then just calmly walks away. It wasn’t a childish anger. It was a very pure form of anger, one of, ‘I’m doing this to spite you because you’re hurting me and people like me.’”
At the J20 protests against Trump’s inauguration in 2017. In the police kettle on L St. and 12th St., Washington DC.
“When the police cornered people, they used sting ball grenades, which are these grenades that, when you throw them, detonate and fire out hundreds of small, rubber pellets. Officers just sprayed these into the crowd, at people who had their hands up, people who were like, ‘you’re beating me into a corner. I can’t do anything.’ Police officers taunted people, saying, “if you don’t want to get sprayed, you should have gone home.’ Or, they were beating people with nightsticks and screaming, ‘go home, go home,’ while we were being boxed in and pepper sprayed. For me, this photo is about the moment you’re being cornered. The moment of no escape, when you’re trapped.”
Watching a World Cup soccer match on July 4th, 2014. Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro
“The reason I took this photo is because it shows an almost religious level of fanaticism over the games. It’s relevant because the government exploits that kind of fanaticism. In a way, it’s related to what Trump’s doing. For Trump’s followers, it stops being about, ‘he’s the best person, and that’s why I voted for him.’ He starts being a demigod. And here, some people were willing to go along with whatever the government said as long as they would get a win for their team.”
Before the far-right torch march on August 12th, 2017. On the University of Virginia campus, Charlottesville, Virginia.
“These alt-right guys started meeting up. Even as a journalist, I was wondering, are these guys going to be cool with me standing here, taking photos as they talk about being Nazis? And they were all weirdly calm about it. People are openly talking about being total bigots and organizing a mob. They were going over battle formations, talking about how they wanted to have a central column of torch holders and an outer column of defenders with weapons. They assumed they were going to be attacked and, to be brutally honest, I think they wanted a confrontation of some sort. It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. It was so much brazen hate that you think most people hide. But it was open and honest. They were chanting, ‘Jews will not replace us’ and ‘Blood and soil,’ which is a Nazi chant. So there’s no subtlety in what they’re saying. It felt like something out of the ‘50s or the ‘40s, a time we all pretend isn’t still happening.”
During the far-right torch march on August 12th, 2017. Around the Jefferson Memorial on the University of Virginia campus, Charlottesville, Virginia.
“The torch march snaked its way through the University of Virginia campus, and when they reached the monument, there were a lot of Black Lives Matter protesters. The torch march just engulfed them, surrounding the statue, and there were people doing Nazi salutes, and you could just hear the Black Lives Matter chant being drowned out by people chanting, ‘white lives matter.’ I never thought I would see something like that, like a lynch mob. They wanted the confrontation so badly that they started beating people with torches. I took that photo right before the beatings started because you could feel everything was on a razor’s edge, like the moment before everything goes totally wrong. It was the moment when I was certain someone was going to die during that whole thing. There’s no way all of that happens and everyone just ends up okay.”
At the far-right torch march on August 12th, 2017. University of Virginia campus, Charlottesville, Virginia.
“That was before the far-right met up at the monument. We were in this big space with all of these plantation-style buildings with large columns. I always knew this was in the US, under the surface, but now it’s parading, on display.”
The site where James Field killed Heather Heyer with his car in a white supremacist terrorist attack at the far-right torch march on August 12th, 2017. Charlottesville, Virginia.
“That’s her blood on the ground. I saw James Field’s car drive away, and that’s why I started walking towards where Heather had died. When I got there, people were already screaming. Street medics were tearing signs in half to make splints for people and just trying to do what was essentially military triage, where you have 20 people injured and 4 street medics. Everyone is almost panicking. Taking the photo was the only way I knew how to process the moment.”
After a confrontation between Brazilian military police and indigenous protesters in July 2016. Museu do Índio, Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro.
“There was a confrontation with the police. The protestors had taken over the museum and erected barricades for a day. The military police snapped the barricades in half and charged in, flushing everyone out. This protester was really upset, and they were just hanging on the fence screaming. It was a deep, heavy, weeping, screaming rage, and that was so striking to me. It was an honest emotion.”
At the “Mother of All Rallies” (MOAR), a pro-Trump rally on September 16th, 2017. National Mall, Washington, D.C.
“That fits into the fanaticism idea that’s present in both Brazil and the US, with this focus on leaders and icons. These people were riding this gigantic Trump float that I actually saw on inauguration day driving past the J20 kettle. The MOAR was pretty tiny and sad, but the people who were there were really into it. It was like a drug, people were totally engulfed by what they were doing.”
Black Bloc trying to form a blockade against the Olympic torch on August 2nd. The city center in Niterói, the state of Rio de Janeiro.
“It was mainly students and younger kids in the blockade. The university in Niterói has a pretty active radical scene since the World Cup, so it made sense that so many were coming out to the protests. Even though Rio was across the river they still felt the echoes of what the Brazilian state was trying to do.”
At a “white lives matter” rally on October 28th, 2017. Shelbyville, Tennessee.
“This is some kind of Nazi organizer who had a kind of power in the overall group. He’s in deep enough that people would go talk to him if things went wrong. Both the left and the right are developing clear iconography now. Everyone is visually trying to say what team they’re on, which you can see before you even start talking to them. These symbols are like medals. They say, these are the things I believe in, this is the side I’m on. Nazi and anarchist groups are subcultures, which is essentially a form of tribalism, so they always use cultural markers. Even if you don’t know who’s inviting you to something or where you’re going, if you see x amount of cultural markers you know what kind of people are going to be there.”
A Força Nacional officer during the Olympic torch run on August 5th, 2016. On Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro.
“She’s one of the cops who carried over the person who got arrested for allegedly trying to steal the Olympic torch. The Força Nacional walked the person all the way over to the patrol car with their arms twisted behind their back and pepper spray in their eyes. It’s such a brutal moment where the police were being so rough on this kid for something they did not even see, something that they just decided to charge them with. It was a weirdly reflective moment. I think even the cop realized how messed up it was. It’s like realizing that you did something but not feeling it at all.”
During a protest on the first day of the Olympic Games on August 5th, 2016. Saens Pena, Rio de Janeiro.
“This was so brazen. Protesters would toss the aerosol cans underneath the burning flag, and then it would explode like a bomb. To me, this moment shows political motivation heightened by technology. You’re trying to send a message to people in power who you don’t like, but you’re willing to do it in the quickest, most effective way possible. To me, that says that you believe in something enough to want to make your message work faster and better.”
A Nazi salute during a “white lives matter” rally on October 28th, 2017. Shelbyville, Tennessee.
“It was tense and not tense at the same time. There were all of these Nazis and then me, a brown guy with a camera. They could tell I was a journalist. I saw that a few of them even recognized me from Charlottesville, but not one said anything to me. That’s the weird thing about going to these things. I’ve gotten a weird level of respect with the Nazis and the alt-right. The only reason that I can come up with is the way I shoot them. I don’t try to make them look bad because I don’t have to. They’re Nazis. They’re bad people from the start. I don’t have to do anything extra to make them look evil. But I think they kind of respect me because they know I’m not doing photography tricks.”
Watching the Olympic soccer game between Brazil and Germany on August 21st, 2016. Rio de Janeiro.
“You could tell people were so happy that it almost made the political problems okay. When people raise their hands like that, it’s almost a religious moment. They just want to be saved. They want to be a part of what they think is bigger than themselves. It’s not just, ‘I’m having a good time.’ It’s, ‘me and all my people are having a great time. We’re having the time of our existence.’”
A speech made by a leader of a Nazi organization at a “white lives matter” rally on October 28th, 2017. Shelbyville, Tennessee.
“The right-wing groups are much more about seniority. People who’ve been through multiple moments are the ones who call the shots. You could tell that he was like a tribal elder to them. When he spoke, everyone else shut up. The far-right organizes themselves around leaders. It’s the opposite of what the left does nowadays, which is to try to make everything decentralized. Ironically, at that moment, the speaker was quoting Martin Luther King. Counter-protesters kept drowning them out with everything they knew would upset them. Adele songs, any type of song by a woman or a woman of color, someone queer, gay, or anything like that. And he kept trying to use an MLK quote about how you’re supposed to listen to your enemies and accept them with love. While the tactic totally failed, it is interesting that Nazis, alt-right groups, and right-wing groups are actually starting to think about activism again. They’re talking about optics and speaking points. To me, that’s scarier than just people showing up. They’re thinking, plotting, and conspiring to do things.”
A body of water alongside the demolished Vila Autódromo community on August 24th, 2016. Next to the Olympic Village in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro.
“The Olympic Village ruined the water. You can see almost an inch of toxic gunk on the surface. But it speaks to something larger. You have this synthetic, fake grass and then a steel tube that pollutes the river. It’s a metaphor for the Olympics. We’re going to put things that look nice on top of what we destroyed. It ruins everything it touches.”
Artememoria: Why do you work on state violence in both Brazil and the United States? How do you see the connection between the two countries?
Shay Horse: Brazil interested me because Americans don’t seem to care about it or really understand it. They just think of it as a crazy place to party, if they know where it lies on the map. But a lot of the crazy political issues in Brazil are also issues in Latin America and much of the world. These aren’t unique problems. These are problems that bad governments have made in the past and will make in the future.
When you try to examine those issues on the street level, with street photography, you see how they affect a class of people and individuals. You break big concepts into simple stories.
Artememoria: Some themes run through the photos. One theme is fanaticism, and not just in American far-right groups. There’s a more widespread fanaticism in this collection.
Horse: I grew up in the South of the US, so I saw religious fanaticism. As I grew older, I’ve noticed it in other locations and events. You see that type of fanaticism not just in religion, but in political rallies too. And not just at rallies, but also with movies, too. If you watch Star Wars celebrations, or see people when they watch a brand new trailer for a Star Wars movie, it’s like a religious event. People care that much and they’re so invested. That’s fascinating to me. It’s not just liking something or wanting to work with something but a total devotion to something.
Artememoria: How do you see that relating to state violence?
Horse: When people are fanatics they stop questioning things. They just do what they’re told because they’re willing to do whatever they feel is the right move for their ideology. A lot of cops, for example, are essentially on a team. You have fraternal orders of the police, ideological groups of cops that always stay close to each other. The state and other groups use that type of fanaticism, that sense of unity, to crack down and repress people.
Artememoria: As you were describing these photos, you sometimes mentioned a feeling in the air that you were trying to capture in order to show the moment that you were physically present in. Tell me a bit more about your process and how you choose moments to photograph.
Horse: To be honest, it’s not a lot of thinking. When I take pictures, I’m not just a journalist. I’m a person, too. Being a person means you have to be present. You have to listen to what people are saying, what people are feeling, and feel the emotional energy yourself. It’s not just where people move or what they say, it’s also how people feel. When you emotionally invest yourself in a situation, even just by being present, you can understand other people. And all of that helps to choose those moments. Even photographing cops or black blockers or Nazis, the whole point is to try to get a moment, a crack in time, something that you can look back on and see that there was actually a person there.
Artememoria: What are the challenges in doing that? How are those challenges different in Brazil and the US?
Horse: I’ve done a lot of protests in America, and protests tend to work very similarly. They always follow one of a few different narratives based on what the protest is trying to do, what the negative aspects of what they’re trying to do are, from the state’s perspective. You can figure out a game plan.
The hard part is really trying to get emotionally invested and making sure that you actually, genuinely care. You have to make sure you’re not acting like paparazzi. The only way for your work to matter is if someone can tell that the person doing this actually cared, that they poured a bit of themselves into it.
Artememoria: What draws you to covering protests?
Horse: People shouldn’t just be forgotten. All of these horrible things deserve to have a light shined upon them. It’s not that no one else has told these stories, but no one else has said it like I have or for the same reasons that I’ve said it. The whole point of being a concerned photographer is standing up for people and standing by people, wanting things to get better.
Artememoria: In terms of the present moment, from your perspective as a photojournalist, what is the situation in terms of rising right-wing energy in authoritarianism in Brazil and the US?
Horse: Brazil and the United States are making a lot of the same moves as they quickly head towards the right. I think the entire world is turning to the right for numerous reasons. But it’s nothing new. All of this has been building up. People don’t realize how history is made moment-to-moment. They forget about all of the wars the US has started and all of the issues Brazil has had, and those mistakes and follies from history add up to make worse scenarios when you never address the original issue
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.