libby march / photographer / buffalo, ny @libbymarch - Tumblr Blog

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‘Ana Liss said Governor Cuomo asked her if she had a boyfriend, called her sweetheart, touched her on her lower back at a reception and once kissed her hand when she rose from her desk. In an exclusive interview with the @WSJ, she said she initially perceived Mr. Cuomo’s conduct as harmless flirtations. Over time, she said, she has come to see it as patronizing, and she added it diminished her from an educated professional to “just a skirt.”’ - I was with reporter Jimmy Vielkind as he interviewed Ms. Liss. I commend her for her courage in telling her story publicly. Far too many people experience inappropriate, toxic treatment or worse in their workplaces every day. Our culture still has a long way to go in recognizing and respecting the personhood and contributions of women, and of people of color and LGBTQ+ people, in the workplace and otherwise. (at Rochester, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMLGWRUFD6y/?igshid=afyrny9s2dud

‘We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out—and we have only just begun.’ - Neil DeGrasse Tyson /// talent: @bhadgirlkiki mua: @xgurlfacex photography: @libbymarch art direction: @libbymarch / @xgurlfacex /// Loved collaborating with Nikki & Jess on this series! IG scrambled the crops, hurray, but horizontals to come. Help us choose a favorite? /// #vsco #makeportraits #buffalo #buffalony #vivabuffalo #buffalove #bflo #buffalo #wny #buffaloaf #buffalophotographer #editorialmakeup (at Buffalo, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLaM-3PFyeT/?igshid=tzxbfu3pkdsg

#vsco #makeportraits #buffalo #buffalony #vivabuffalo #buffalove #bflo #wny #buffaloaf #buffalophotographer #editorialmakeup

Small fires, sometimes of letters, sometimes of small organic mementos, help me pay homage and find renewal. I made this photograph with a stem from a dying bouquet, a lovely gift from my birthday a few weeks before. Burning a fading bloom felt like a small catharsis, a symbol for personal and universal grief, closing a year of virus, complex racial reckoning, political mayhem, and fitful, glacial, messy growth in my country. So much darkness left in this world and this ‘new’ year, too, but so much beauty, always. I find comfort in the cycle of things - that things, always, will change - and strangely, in the impermanence of it all. There will be more flowers. We will grow them, and ourselves, better and stronger. I hope for that, I work for that. (Archive, December 2020. For @thejournal_collective) (at Buffalo, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLXoBVjFOV2/?igshid=1af3bio1fnij

When the news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death broke, I was on assignment in Rochester, working on a story yet unpublished. I heard people uttering soft expletives, murmuring together, and turned to find these two women embracing, one in tears, the other resolved. Not six weeks later, Amy Coney Barrett has been sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice, with only a week before a presidential election. #ruthbaderginsburg #amyconeybarrett #supremecourt (at Rochester, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG3A7MgFcQL/?igshid=jkt5vs840hy9

#ruthbaderginsburg #amyconeybarrett #supremecourt

Neighborhood beauty. Buffalo, N.Y., 2019. (at Buffalo, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGlA4KYl7ZD/?igshid=1oknkvcg1pxc0

Drinking in every bit of autumn. (at Buffalo, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CF48ViSlT9d/?igshid=2lk1s5s3xjdf

Alongside a rally for Daniel Prude, Rochester, N.Y. September 4, 2020. For @washingtonpost #DanielPrude #JusticeforDanielPrude #RochesterNY #Rochester #ftproc (at Rochester, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFQZHGslB1T/?igshid=qr5ary1k2nci

#danielprude #justicefordanielprude #rochesterny #rochester #ftproc

"Hundreds of workers fell ill after cleaning up America’s largest industrial disaster without proper gear. At least 50 have died. Twelve years later, they’re still waiting for help." Portraiture of Craig Wilkinson for @theguardian here in western New York to accompany @austyngaffney’s powerful reporting & @morganhornsby’s beautiful imagery from Tennessee. Thank you, @jehanjillani. Link to the story in my profile. - Craig Wilkinson, 62, spent seven months in 2009 helping clean up the 2008 Kingston spill. He was told coal ash was safe, but began experiencing aches in his bones, blurry eyesight, and shortness of breath after only a few months of work. In 2015, he was diagnosed with COPD and emphysema, requiring oxygen around the clock until receiving a double lung transplant in 2017. Over 400 other TVA workers are sick, too, and 50 other people who worked the cleanup are dead. Two months ago the news came that Wilkinson’s body is rejecting his new lungs, and they are now working at only about 43 percent capacity. Today, Wilkinson is one of over 200 workers and loved ones of deceased workers suing for damages because of health consequences of unprotected proximity to coal ash. (at Elma, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CECxl00Fl8a/?igshid=vsbrs8fecwh7

‘Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.’ - @dollyparton Buffalo, N.Y., August 2020. (at Buffalo, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CECtRDGFP4g/?igshid=5no8w1lnckoc

Eight Black transgender people were reported murdered in the past week. What does that say about our freedom? Who is it for? In the days between Pride and July 4, I’ve thought often of Marsha P. Johnson. I picture Marsha in her kaleidoscopic outfits & crowns of fruit & flowers, I picture her throwing a legendary brick at Stonewall. Marsha, whose very existence was a risk, still fought for herself & her community. And she was punished for it; persecuted all her life, her body eventually found in a river - not even 30 years ago. This violence against non-white people has never ended and it goes far beyond police brutality. This land was stolen from Native peoples, built on with labor stolen from enslaved Black peoples, while the economy still functions through exploitation. Schools under-serve children of color. Hospitals ignore the needs of non-white patients, contributing to chronic conditions & sometimes death. Cities are still segregated, voting booths a battleground just for access, and the law itself is largely by & for white people. And there’s the white American tradition of culture theft, while white folks continue ignoring the pain of oppressed humanity. We can do better; we can face our complicity and work to build antiracist structures & policies now & onward. But generations of trauma and murder can never be undone. Those of us with white privilege have centuries of oppression to address & dismantle. As Layla F. Saad says, we must become good ancestors. I’m years late in writing publicly about this; I am sorry for that & deeply sorry for any harm I have caused. But apologies only have a place if they’re supported by better behavior, & they’re not the point. The point is protecting Black lives, brown lives, queer lives; it’s radical change, individual & systemic. I am focused on that, taking responsibility to re-learn, continuously check my privilege, and take action. Antiracism is a practice, a muscle we work until racism is actually eradicated. “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” Fannie Lou Hamer said it, almost 50 years ago. American freedom is empty until it exists for everyone. Question ‘independence;’ is not liberation better? #tldr https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJ826_l1cp/?igshid=1xhbvi9kxfuw4

#tldr

“Immigrant workers are the backbone of our state’s farming industry. Many are undocumented or work with temporary guest worker visas. We have always lived and worked isolated from the rest of society, invisible to most. This leaves our community even more vulnerable now. And while I don’t live in employer-provided housing, which can be tight quarters, many farmworkers do, making it nearly impossible to fully quarantine for sickness. Employers are sharing very little information about how to protect ourselves. It’s unclear what the plan is to keep us safe, but I’d bet our bosses are mostly focused on their bottom line, not our health. I have heard of farms that practically prevent workers from leaving because they are concerned that if we get sick, the work won’t get done. Many farmworkers don’t have health insurance and aren’t sure how to afford medical care or support families if we can’t work. If we get sick, what will happen to us? Will we be fired because we’re no longer useful to the farm and are now a threat to the business? Recently, a fellow Guatemalan dairy worker in the region died from the coronavirus — our worst fear. And despite the pandemic, detention and deportation of undocumented workers is still a threat. Meanwhile, the federal government is leaving my community behind. The federal recovery bill excludes people without a Social Security number from receiving a $1,200 check, even if they pay taxes. And undocumented workers can’t apply for unemployment insurance. It’s hard to be in a country that isn’t ours, and in this crisis, it is even harder. We put food on everyone’s table, but we struggle to feed ourselves and our families.” - Alma Tzalain is asking critical questions about this land of supposed opportunity. Above is only an excerpt. Please read her powerful essay in @nytimes. (at New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_A2cS-lowxW_8kpon6MEZuARHgkih3tM5Em9U0/?igshid=12c0dpwjidsu2

My chest is tight, all the time, now. It’s dread, or pre-grief; in my apartment we wear it like a mantle, though in my city the virus is just beginning its deadly bloom. Each day the number of cases multiplies, and the world outside grow quieter, the news darker, our minds noisier. On the front line at the hospitals there must never be enough time - for those who must wait, it’s as if time is suspended. In these slow days, I clutch at every touch of beauty, every connection, every blessing. I collect these small things in a quest for hope, trying to hold the joy in balance with the grief as we wait; as we all hold our breath. #coronavirus #wpthejournal (at Buffalo, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-iWp4Xl1dT/?igshid=1wsu7ggbuvipo

#coronavirus #wpthejournal

“Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety” - Edward, 30, stands for a portrait at Onondaga Lake Park in Syracuse, N.Y., Thursday, March 19, 2020. He was recently verbally attacked while at the grocery store. "It's you people who brought the disease," hissed a neighboring man in the checkout line. "He kept saying, 'I ought to knock you out. You are sick. I ought to just kill you." Edward, who was born in the United States, said the man's words made him feel, for the first time ever, a fear of being Asian. Now he said, "I feel like I'm being invaded by this hatred. It's everywhere. It's silent. It's as deadly as this disease." Edward wears a respirator mask here to partially obscure his identity and to continue isolating himself, and thereby his family, from coronavirus exposure. He asked that his last name not be used because he fears attracting more attention. - Please read the story from Sabrina Tavernise at link in profile. Thank you @tara_god for trusting me with this one. #coronavirus #covid-19 #upstateny #newyork #racisminamerica #wny #CV (at Syracuse, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-SwpJcFWov/?igshid=1ie0qm1ldl1fm

#coronavirus #covid #upstateny #newyork #racisminamerica #wny #cv

“Brianna Jaynes asked for help for her drug addiction. Then Florida’s rehab industry exploited her for profit.” Jaynes is now a nurse and a speaker in recovery, traveling nationally to talk about addiction and overdose awareness in memory of her sister, Whitney, who died in 2018 after a long battle with addiction. Brianna and Whitney were just two and a half years apart. Reminders of Whitney are present throughout Brianna’s life, in the purple butterflies decorating her home, the tattoos on her forearms, her awareness work with Breaking Chains: The Whitney Project, piles of old family photos, and countless other ways. Thank you very much to @dascruggs and to Brianna for her openness. The following is an excerpt from German Lopez's piece about Brianna and the system that preyed on her. Link in profile for the full piece, part of The Rehab Racket: Investigating the high cost of addiction care. - "Brianna Jaynes wanted help for her addiction to painkillers and heroin. She ended up trapped in a cycle that focused on running up big insurance bills and landing profitable kickbacks — not addressing her drug problem. In 2015, when Jaynes was 20, she started her rehab search by calling a number she found through Google. The person on the other end of the line promised to get her help: She’d be fine, and she’d get into one of the best addiction treatment facilities in the country. Jaynes had little experience with addiction treatment, and, in a moment of crisis, it was exactly what she wanted to hear. But what Jaynes didn’t know is that she was speaking to a broker who, despite his claims, wasn’t working with the best treatment facilities. Instead, she later found out, he worked with facilities that had promised him a kickback for sending them patients. The facilities, in turn, would bill the patients’ insurance for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars." (at Westfield, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9P6OdaFudy/?igshid=3hkuibc2tzbz

Still too much to distill from the 2010s - the decade of my 20s, really. A decade of moving & shaking apart & learning & trying & failing & loving & leaving & leaping into the unknown & renewing. Grateful for all the love & adventures, ready for the next set of chapters. Maybe I’ll eventually edit this caption with a real recap, but I doubt it. We are all as different, and the same, as ever. (Archive, view from an old home in North Carolina, 2015.) #2010s #2020vision #vsco (at Outer Banks, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7RvyOwFtua/?igshid=1k202m8e5mkem

#2010s #2020vision #vsco

‘The Dreamers,’ Buffalo, NY, July 2019. Adieu to dreamy summer days, good thing @rodagues make magic all year ✨ if you’re a musician in Buffalo & you’ve got something cooking, let’s talk! DM me! (at Buffalo, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4iZXzHF8JD/?igshid=cpty1oztgt7q

“The suburbs of Toronto have become a central battleground in the Canadian election, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fighting for his political survival in a region where rising costs are fueling widespread financial anxieties. With Mr. Trudeau and his Conservative rival Andrew Scheer locked in a tight race ahead of an Oct. 21 election, this fast-growing sprawl of single homes, strip malls and broad thoroughfares is expected to play a decisive role, much as swing states like Florida do in U.S. elections.” Scenes from Toronto & its surrounding 905-area suburbs for @wsj last month; story by Paul Vieira at link in profile. #toronto #905 #ontario #justintrudeau #canadianpolitics #politics #wsjassignment #onassignment #buffalophotographer #torontosuburbs #canada #vsco (at Toronto, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3nhWn0ltI0/?igshid=1qifxbugo3te3

#toronto #905 #ontario #justintrudeau #canadianpolitics #politics #wsjassignment #onassignment #buffalophotographer #torontosuburbs #canada #vsco

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libby march / photographer / buffalo, ny