Interview 077 with Sean Waltrous

Listen to photographer Sean Waltrous whose family emigrated from The Caribbean—Trinidad, Barbados, and Jamaica—and who is from Brooklyn, New York share about his life at the beginning, middle, and (approaching the official) end of the pandemic. At the beginning of the 2020 lockdown Sean was tending to his sourdough starter and gardening and binge-watching television. Then, when the murder of George Floyd video came out, Sean documented the events of 2020 and 2021 and went outside… [The "Explicit" rating is for just a few cuss-words in this episode.]

While listening to Sean take us on a photographic journey of protests in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and D.C. click on his Instagram page @seanwaltrous and follow along as he talks about the events of the pandemic. Then click over to his website seanwaltous.com and experience the Insurrection of 2021 and the Inauguration of 2021 through his historical photographs as he describes documenting the events.

“I had for a long time always gone out to protest actions and photographed them, but I never really, you know I never really, you know, posted them. It's more just, you know, a thing I did for myself personally. The first protest that I photographed was actually when I was in college. It was in 1996 or 1997—around there—and it was a it was also a police brutality protest. So, when the protests started to happen, because of COVID I was a little reticent to go outside, you know. Still a lot wasn't known about how much transition could happen outside and I was, you know, trying to be cautious and I am also slightly older now than when I first started out going to these actions. So, I, you know, it was kind of my, the idea for me was like, ‘The kids got it.’ You know. It's gonna be okay…you know they seem to be out there and it’s in their hands, and then I just started seeing more and more reports of like you know vicious brutality with these protesters and then the curfews started to happen, and it felt more like an all-hands-on-deck situation. So, I got myself together and loaded up my backpack like a doomsday-prepper and had all of the Purell and the wipes and the extra masks and so on and so forth and I started to go out and photograph actions that were happening in New York City.”

"Cancel Rent. Defund NYPD." Housing Justice Is Racial Justice Rally and March. Crown Heights, Brooklyn. 7/2020. (Posted July 24, 2020 on Instagram).

While in D.C. at the 2021 Insurrection:

“…The Trump supporters then turned around and started filming me and asking me if I was doxxing people and it became a little chaotic…because I was also on a livestream on Instagram too, and people were like, ‘Get out of there! Get out of there!”

Sean’s photography memorializes the lives of the many Black people murdered by the police, including, but not limited to Ahmaud Arbery, Brianna Taylor, and George Floyd.