Who is Occupy Wall Street? “Dirty hippies” and “trendy grunge” addicts, according to some commenters on this Slate slideshow. This morning’s Christian Science Monitor asks if the movement is becoming “a magnet for miscreants and malingerers with too much free time.”
In the early days of the protests, photographer Jonathan Nesteruk wanted to answer this question for himself. So he went down to Zuccotti Park and spent a few days simply taking portraits of the people there—and talking to them.
“I’m here to support what should be a much larger movement. I‘ve always felt there is something fundamentally wrong with the system that benefits very very few people and has been benefiting fewer people while relegating more and more people to the margins. Some people in the mainstream media are trying to portray these people as a bunch of freaks. There are some very interesting people here by all means but these people are accountants, lawyers and doctors. People here drive your buses, drive your cabs, work as teachers, artists. They work in clothing shops. Some of them are from the very corporate firms that we think have responsibility for what’s happening and they are protesting.”
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Hajer
Reporter From France, Born in Tunisia
"We are so proud that the Arab Spring has inspired this. We started it all."
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Asher
Age 20, from New York
“I’m here experiencing the culture of revolution. It’s a beautiful thing when you see the bottom of what they call the economic pyramid actually set up and try to grab back what’s their own. I think as a young black man especially, we need to see more minority community kids come down here and represent, and bring that extra spunk we need to get this thing rolling. We’ve seen this happen in Greece and in Egypt, but to see this happen in America, in Manhattan, in the financial district, the financial capital of the world. It’s gonna be something beautiful.”
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Alice
Raging Granny
“We are with the New York City Metro Raging Grannies. There are more than 60 groups in the United States. We are trying to stop the war and promote health care. We are trying to protect our grandchildren.”
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Mike
Age 44, Unemployed from New Jersey
“I have two degrees and I’m unemployed. You see on the Web and on TV that there are people who are not only as bad off as me, but have it even worse. I’m glad to see these people finally starting to do something about it.”
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Helen
Age 72, Retired CUNY Professor
“We are here to support the protest.”
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Ame
Age 56, Activist from New York
“Three years ago I organized Wall Street protests against the bailout. We had only 20 people then, now we are thousands. I am so happy.”
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Holly
Age 37, Works for Solar Energy Company
“I came down here to show my solidarity to all the people who have been down here the last couple weeks … People here that I talk to think it’s not even important to vote beause there is no power there. Whoever we vote for ends up working for big business and money. People are feeling really deflated and powerless [about] that. I think it’s really important for all of us to come here and speak our word."
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Edward
Age 73, from Baltimore, Md.
“I was a small-business man for 44 years. I had the opportunity to take a small company and build it up to a reasonable size. That’s because I was working with a government with a Congress that was not bought by the wealthiest of this country. That gave everybody an opportunity to move forward.”
Photograph by Jonathan Nesteruk.
Mani Nom
Age 60, from Los Angeles, teacher and healer
Said he wasn't comfortable giving a reason for attending on the spot, but he was open to having his portrait taken as another protester showing his support for the cause.
After interviewing about 80 people, he says what surprised him most was how “reasonable” most people seemed and how varied their backgrounds were. Sure, there were unemployed plaid-lovers and mask-wearing-teens, but also businessmen and former professors.
There haven’t been many studies on the makeup of the Occupiers yet. One, by the Baruch College School of Public Affairs, found that at least half the people drawn to the protests are employed. However, the findings of that study were based on a survey of visitors to occupywallst.org—and not solely on the sign-wavers in Zuccotti Park and elsewhere.
This is a big part of why photo projects like Nesteruk’s are so valuable. You’ll find more portraits and interviews on his Tumblr blog. Also worth checking out: August Bradley’s 99 Faces of Occupy Wall St.
Oh Snap! is Brow Beat’s weekly photo feature. Have you spotted a project that’s worth profiling? Pitch to ohsnapidea@gmail.com.
