"Civil War"

The war images can be heart-breaking. They elicit feelings and emotions that the world may never otherwise conjure without those images. They can be thought-provoking to get the people talking or at least thinking.

But why do they do it? Why put one’s self in harm’s way for the sake of telling a story? I can only hope to have the chance to talk to such a professional one day to hear the “why” behind the work they do. Perhaps I can start with a book on the life of a photo journalist.

These images of mine are nowhere close to the harsh reality of war. By no means do I intend to even pretend these images are close. But watching the film got me thinking of the time where there was so much unrest in many major cities throughout America — Chicago, where I reside, being one of them — that followed the court ruling in the case of George Floyd’s death.

Just two blocks from where I live, the luxury brand shops all got looted. It was unreal to see the chaos happening mere steps away from where I live. This was in May of 2020, two months after the start of the COVID lockdown.

In August of 2020, just when shops were opening their doors again after getting ransacked several months prior, Chicago-based rapper, FBG Duck was gunned down in an apparent gang-related shooting just outside the Christian Louboutin store. These are the images I managed to take as soon as I learned of what happened two streets over from my street. The Chicago PD cordoned off the area that I could get no closer to the scene of the crime, as the investigators did their job.

Oak Street in Gold Coast, Chicago, cordoned off

Local Chicago Rapper, FBG Duck gunned down in an alleged gang-related shooting on 4 August, 2020 on Oak Street in Gold Coast neighbourhood of Chicago. (Click image to see in full scale.)