2023 First Place: Photo Story

Absence
Gun violence in Rochester has been forced into a way of life, but many people are fighting back to mitigate the tragedies. The fact that the issue will not be solved overnight is acknowledged, but through the community uplifting each other, long after a funeral or vigil, hope is coming back alive. Rochester is referred to as a “warzone” by its outsiders due to its increase in violence. Below a layer of stereotypes, there is a community vibrant and full of life, rebounding from tragedy.

Shaq Rodriguez, pours a bottle of liquor, as a ritual of respect, on the casket of Alexis Mercedes before he is buried at Riverside Cemetery on Nov. 30, 2022. “We always had fun when we were together, sparring, drinking, dancing. “There’s something very beautiful about what you see there, that how we show him respect.” says Rodriguez.

Isabel Rosa, a coordinator with Rise Up Rochester, a grassroots anti-gun violence group, chants into a megaphone at a protest in response to a recent shooting in the Marketview Heights Neighborhood on Sept. 19, 2022. The neighborhood has experienced a lot of violence, notably a shooting at a house party in 2020 that left 2 dead, and 14 injured.

A gun storage room is seen at the Monroe County Crime Lab in Rochester, N.Y. on Sept. 28, 2022. These weapons are considered reference guns, meaning they are no longer considered criminal evidence as their cases have been disposed. All these guns have been picked up in the City of Rochester. Crime lab workers use these weapons to compare to evidence guns to assist in forensics of active investigations of shootings.

Titiana Bogar, the mother of Ly’Saun Curry, cries out after a balloon release honoring Curry on the 2-year-anniversary of his death on Oct. 2, 2022. Curry, who was 18, was killed while walking home from his construction job on Oct. 2, 2020. Orange was his favorite color, and his friends and family have used it to honor him through clothing and accessories. Bogar has become a mentor to Curry’s friends, as they all deal with his passing.

Josh Lowe, a friend of Ly’Saun Curry, comforts Curry’s mother, Titiana Bogar after the hearing the news of the verdict in the court case over the death of Curry. The man who shot Curry, Jonathan Spinks, was convicted of second degree murder on Oct, 28, 2022. He was later sentenced to 90 years to life in prison.

Master Glover poses for a portrait in an Extended Stay hotel room in Greece, N.Y. on Sept. 20, 2022. Glover was shot eight times on July 20, 2022, and now needs to use a walker for an injury to his left leg. He spent 20 days in the hospital, where he says that he felt mistreated as if he was a throwaway case. He is living at the hotel for peace and quiet while he is recovering. “I am still trying to figure that out,” says Glover. Obviously for me to get shot eight times like I did; I know I definitely have to have a purpose because I’m still here. So hopefully one day God shows me that purpose and I see it. I mean, right now, my purpose is just trying to heal and be there for my son.”

Anaida Perez, a resident of the Harriett Tubman Estates canvasses the neighborhood on Dec. 7, 2022, to hang up flyers for a community meeting to create a safety plan for residents, following a shooting at the Estates. The shooting occurred at a vigil for Jeremiah Baker, a 17-year-old who was killed in June, also at the Estates. It was a vigil for his 18th birthday, and people who had disagreements with Baker came to shoot at the vigil. A 12-year-old, 16-year-old, and 20-year-old were all shot, but all survived.

Students from Flower City School No. 54 gather at a shrine dedicated to Bryson Simpson on April 14, 2022 during a peace march through the Edgerton Neighborhood. Simpson, who was 17 years old, was killed on March 11, 2022, after getting off his bus after school. The march was organized by Save Rochester, a community outreach group, to protest for better safety measures for students in the City of Rochester, as the shooting happened just blocks from Flower City School No. 54.

The day after he was killed, friends and family of Raymond Walls Jr., cheer as a dirt biker performs a burnout on his bike in honor of Walls at his makeshift memorial site at the corner of Lyell Ave. and Whitney St. on Sept. 4, 2022. When a fellow rider dies, motorcycle and dirt bike riders come out together to the site of where they died to perform burnouts as a tribute. Walls, 27, who went by the name Ray Ray Bae, was killed at the same street corner the night before. Walls had also been shot in 2017 and had survived.

Robert Ricks, center, a student play director, and playwright watches as students in his play production “Boys Black Lives Matter 2: The School to Prison Pipeline”, set up a makeshift shrine, like what one would see for a victim of gun violence on the street in Rochester on Dec. 10, 2022. The shrine was set up for set for a fight between two drug dealers at a shrine. The goal of this play for Ricks was for the audience to understand the reality of the life that children are being exposed to. “You get to see their fun side at the end of every performance, because they’re like, turn on the music,” says Takeisha Brinson, the program coordinator for Robert Rick’s organization, Mentors Inspiring Boys and Girls. “Let’s party, Let’s dance. Let the crowd see who we really are. Despite this negative message that we may have given you that may have broken down in tears, or made you see some reality. That was just a facade. These are characters that you really see out on the streets, and they’re not acting.”

A person walks across the corner of Willowbank Pl. and West Main St. in Rochester on Feb. 9, 2023, where a billboard for Yasir Clark, 23, stands. Clark, who went by the stage name, Guwop Gumbo, was an up and coming rapper from Rochester who was remembered by his friends and family for his fashion sense. He was shot and killed after an argument at a bar on East Ave in Rochester on June 11, 2022.

Jamma Balkum, 8, the son of the late Jamen Balkum, dances while surrounded by friends and family at the 30th birthday celebration for his father in Rochester, N.Y., on Jan. 14, 2023. The past two years since Balkum’s passing, his mother, Michelle Balkum, has through birthday parties to celebrate the legacy of her late son.

2023 First Place: Photo Story

First Place: Vincent Alban