A closer look: Protest photographer Orin Langelle

Artist: Orin Langelle // Untitled photograph of G8 protester, 2007 // On view through Dec. 6 in the People’s Global Camp against WTO in Denpasar, Indonesia

Buffalo-based photographer Orin Langelle has been taking photographs of anti-globalization protests around the globe for decades. A selection of his black and white and color photographs, including the above 2007 shot of a protester dressed as a clown during a protest against a G8 summit in Rostock, Germany, is now on view in the ad-hoc protest camp set up to coincide with the ongoing meeting of the World Trade Organization in Bali. The photograph shows an unnamed protestor closing her eyes amid police in riot gear — one of an estimated 80,000 protesters at the event — moments before the police sprayed the crowd with what Langelle writes was “water mixed with tear gas.” You can see more of Langelle’s photographs in the extensive exhibition here.

–Colin Dabkowski