A selection of images from “A Step Frozen in Time”, by Cincinnati-based photographer Kelcey Mucker. Kelcey, a current journalism student at the University of Cincinnati, uses photography as a way to familiarize himself and his viewers with the world and experiences around him.

“A Step Frozen in Time” focuses on the protests in Cincinnati, Ohio during the summer of 2020. The summer’s smog this year has been thick–saturated with death, injustice and global agony. As we enter into September, many of us are questioning how to make sense of it all, and if it’s even possible to do so when time feels so relentless. In “A Step Frozen in Time”, Kelcey pieces together the moments that seem too difficult to grasp–a global pandemic, the nation-wide protests, and amidst it all, the human desire to survive.

- Alexa Fahlman

For centuries, black Americans have had to fight for their basic recognition as a human– the want and the need to live every day without having the fear of being crucified for being black. After the death of George Floyd in May of 2020, peaceful and non-peaceful protests began around the world. What made this death different? Was it the boredom of the COVID-19 pandemic? Was it the pressure building from Donald Trump’s presidency? Was it the hundreds of years' unfair treatment of black people? Or was it the thousands of deaths caused by police brutality? These protests are fighting for the same rights as everyone else. The same issues have been fought for many years, but now there are more people; more people with different ethnicities fighting for equal rights. As a gay black photojournalist, it is difficult to stay neutral for a country that has been choosing a side since the beginning.

When I approach taking a photo, I sometimes don't think, or I do the complete opposite. I apply my skills learned in my photojournalism courses and techniques from photographers I look up to. I like to capture "moments." The way I think of a photograph is that I believe that every single photo is telling a story. I could have submitted this series of photos without a caption and a story would have been told thoroughly. These photos could have only been portraits, but with the current climate in the U.S., the story would have been just as strong. Every photo is taken with so much thought or none at all.

Kelcey on ig

Kelcey's website