Baltimore Riots

Devin Allen was just a kid from Baltimore who has had his fair share of misfortunes. With him only being 27, you'd be surprised to hear that he has had to bury more than 20 of his friends. Devin lost his two best friends all within one weekend. He claims that photography has literally saved his life, since he was supposed to be with his best friends when they died, but he ended up taking photos instead. “If it wasn’t for photography, I would probably be in a casket. Once I lost those guys, it changed me forever.” This is when Devin realized that he wanted to dive deep into his photography, and to just focus on his passion, no more street life. 

When Devin head about Freddie Gray's death in police custody, on April 19^th, 2015, it was through a text he had received “My mind was racing when the protests began, because no one really understands Baltimore, most people see the riots … but they don’t understand the pain that caused those riots and caused that uprising."  As soon as Devin heard of this story he grabbed his camera, he knew the reporter's showing up to Baltimore would not report the incident without bias, so he was determined to be that guy. Even though the people were rioting, Devin saw many people come together to help clean up Baltimore, he claims that he even saw Bloods and Crips working together. One of the photo's that Devin tweeted out gained a lot a popularity within a few hours, the one Time chose to put on their cover. Celebrities even used Devin's photos in order to post online and show their support for Baltimore.

Not only is Devin an influential guy, by choosing to photograph something like the Baltimore riots without bias, but he also a good photographer. Time wouldn't choose a low quality photo to put on the front cover of their magazine. The article on flickr starts with the sort of "bad" photos, meaning the photos with police violence and civilians causing damage, but the photos towards the bottom will inspire you.