This year started with a five-month job working as a full-time photographer for the Texas Senate. I was documenting the Senate’s 87th Legislative Session. Being in the room for committee hearings and floor debates was wildly interesting, educating, infuriating, as well as uplifting—often all within the span of a few hours or even minutes.
Texas has a unique legislative process. The state legislature only goes into session for five months every other year. And while the governor can call a special session, for the most part, all the bills that are going to be passed every two years have to go through the legislature during that five-month period.
I took the job because I thought that this session would be especially consequential as well as visually interesting because of the Black Lives Matter protests that had happened in 2020 as well as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. I couldn’t have guessed just how consequential it would become.
My job started on January 11th, just a few days after the insurrection that took place at the US Capitol. There was a very noticeable military presence because of threats on all state Capitol buildings. This was all while mandatory COVID-19 testing and mask-wearing were taking place to enter the Senate Chamber. In mid-February, a catastrophic winter storm shut down much of the Texas power grid, forcing a whole new line of legislation to be written. Needless to say, there was a lot that was covered.
I plan on writing more about the experience in the near future. For now, here are some of my favorite images that I shot between January and May.
You can click the first image and then use your left and right arrow keys to view the images as a slideshow.
