Our Voices, Our Streets: American Protests 2001-2011

The American street has always been the ultimate public venue for political and cultural expression. This collection of images by Kevin Bubriski covers a decade of American street protest that began on January 20, 2001 with the inauguration of George W. Bush and ended with Occupy Wall Street in October of 2011.

The crowds in the street at the 2001 inauguration made it clear America was at a difficult and defining moment after a contentious election. Following the inauguration of 2001 and the tragedy of 9/11, the American streets- as they have been since the country’s founding-became the setting for numerous memorials and vigils, parades and protests.

These photographs chronicle events in New York, Washington, D.C., and Vermont. The gatherings were large and sometimes small, and in both cases usually unnoticed by the mainstream media. These street portraits show a diversity of Americans: veterans, families of men and women on active duty, families of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy, parents of U.S. servicemen and women killed in the Iraq War, security personnel, police, Muslim Americans, anti-war activists, disenfranchised minorities, and anarchist youth. The common denominators that unite these images are the lens of the Hasselblad camera and the public stage of the American streets.