Editing Under Pressure: Protecting Protestors in a Surveillance State
Greenville Precinct - Jersey City, NJ - June 2020
The camera can document truth—it can also put people at risk.
As crackdowns on protest intensify, we should all be mindful about how we make and edit images. What does it mean to photograph someone exercising their rights when those rights are under attack? How do you show the truth without exposing someone to harm? I’ve covered protests where people showed up in good faith—holding signs, chanting, simply standing still—and later faced harassment, job loss, or worse. The threat isn’t hypothetical. It’s real.
Our Cameras Are a Liability
Keely Bembry with her friends and family viewing protestors from her store SECÜR.
There have been times I chose not to publish an image at all. Not because they weren’t good, but because I knew who was in them. Or I didn’t know who was in them, and couldn’t ask safely. There’s an assumption that everything captured should be shown. I disagree. Documentation has a responsibility. Not everything belongs online.
Cropping and Framing to Conceal
In many protest images, the power is in the posture, the collective moment, not the identity of a single person. That gives me room to protect subjects. Sometimes I crop tightly—hands raised, signs visible, but identities hidden. Sometimes the subject turns away, and that’s the frame I keep. The goal is to hold onto the emotional truth of the image while erasing details that can be used to harm.
Metadata Is a Threat, Too
It’s not just what’s in the frame—it’s what’s hidden inside the file.
When uploading straight from my camera or phone, I risk sharing a protester’s exact location, the time they were there, and other sensitive information. That data can be used in legal cases or surveillance.
Before publishing, it’s best to strip metadata. No timestamps. No GPS or unnecessary info. Just the image. ExifTool is great for this.
Self Editing in the Moment
Here’s one moment I still think about. During the 2020 uprisings, someone was caught in the moment. Even though they were wearing a mask, jewelry and tattoos could’ve identified them at some point. I almost took the shot. It was strong. But I had to make a decision to get closer, crop the frame, and remove the bottom part. Luckily, the energy was the same.
