On June 19, 2021, Canadian photojournalist Amber Bracken took a photo of a monument on Tk’emlups te Secwepemc land just outside Kamloops, BC: Red dresses hung on crosses as the afternoon sun broke the rain. He was on a mission after the discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Residential School. This photo – taken from a section of Highway 5 between the powwow facility and the site of the former residential school – has just been named World Press Photo of the Year. “It’s a kind of image that hides in your memory, it inspires a kind of sensory reaction,” Rena έν Efenti, chair of the global jury, said in a press release on Thursday. “I could almost hear the silence in this photo, a quiet moment of global appreciation for the history of colonization, not just in Canada but around the world.” Bracken – who turned 38 last week while in Rome covering the Native Vatican delegation – won a World Press Photo Award in 2017, but winning the top prize is “the next level,” he says. She also says that she does not feel that this photo belongs to her, but to the people Tk’emlups te Secwepemc. “There would be no image for me without the work they had done.” The Globe and Mail spoke with Bracken from Edmonton, where he lives. Amber Bracken in Edmonton, January 18, 2021. Jason Franson / Brochure What did you think when you found out? I was really impressed with his timing. Without being too occult, it feels a bit appropriate. Because I was called when I was actually in Rome with the delegation talking to the Pope. So there was this synchronization in the whole thing. Can we talk about Rome for a moment? How was that? It was remarkable. It was an honor to witness this particular group of people. I know the feelings around apology are complex, but the people who undertook to travel so far and do this kind of work with as little certainty as they had, were just a really worthwhile group. Let’s talk about this photo. Can you tell me about the moment you took it? I was there for a few days and it was quite dark all the time, cloudy and rainy. I wanted to get on the freeway to photograph these dresses. There is a very steep mound stacked next to the highway, so it was difficult to get there. It was not really made for humans. And it was my last chance to do it. One of the guards from the Kamloops residential school offered to show me the way. I told him what I wanted to do and he came to show me the path. I kept telling him I would be fine, you can go back, but he stayed with me all the time. And as soon as we climbed the hill to get out on the highway, the sun broke the clouds a bit. It was night and he passed in this dramatic evening way that will make the light and illuminate the sky with this rainbow. The guard was watching the traffic for me so that our car would not kill us. And he noticed that one foot of the rainbow seemed to land at the place where the children’s graves had been discovered. I felt like a moment of calm that all these things came together in the right way to have that moment of light in all the gloom. When something like this happens, do you have a moment to think: wow, this photo? I have enough doubt about myself that I am never sure until I am home and looking at it. I always doubt if I did it right. I absolutely felt the magic of the moment coming together. that the sun would rise in the right way and light the crosses exactly that way. I knew it was good. I still did not know if I captured it correctly. Emotions must be so complex. It’s such a terrible story. And then you have this beautiful photo you took. I understand what you are saying, because it is strange for something that concerns such a sad and difficult reality to be aesthetically beautiful. But strangely enough, this is something I aim for almost all the time. Because, for better or worse, we care more about things that are beautiful. So, even the dark and difficult things, when they are beautiful, we pay attention to. When I hear your name, the immediate thing that comes to mind for the year you lived is your arrest as you covered the Wet’suwet’en demonstrations. The charges were eventually dropped, but is there some sort of permanent test for you? I am mainly very disappointed with the state of press freedom in Canada. I think we have a lot of work to do. I feel motivated to keep mentioning these issues. The more they do not want me to mention them, the more I want to mention them. Keep taking pictures as he goes down. How did you maintain the presence of your mind? Honestly, I do not know that I did. It was scary. There is this weird thing that happens when you take pictures. There is a specific separation between you and the thing. It’s like a mental break, where you know it’s happening, but you do not feel as if it’s happening to you. At that moment, my body knew it was happening to me. I remember having involuntary tremors all over my body. My knees and all my joints were shaking completely. And I remember thinking that I was not sure if I was safe to shake my hands because the other people I was photographing had their hands in the air. I did not want to activate [the police] to do anything scary? I did not want them to pull the trigger because I moved in the wrong way. I remember just taking root and taking pictures, but slowly. I was not willing to turn my back on the door or really move seats. I’m looking at some of the photos I took there now and I think I could have done better. When that happens, is it difficult to keep up the good work? How do you return to it without provoking – or maintaining a sense of objectivity? I think you still have to take each situation as a new situation. So even though I understand how this moment of arrest relates to so many other things, I was back out there in February. It is not the same experience every time. Every day is a new day. Each chapter of this story is its own. So you have to be willing to see it with fresh eyes, I guess. And just try to respond to it as it is instead of overtaking yourself. We all have cameras with us at all times and we can take as many photos as we want. Can you explain why it is so important to have photojournalists like you doing this job professionally? I think the more accessible photography is, the more we need conscious professionals. We need people who are trained in visual journalism who can help reduce the noise of the absolute flood of visual images we have. There is only so much that we can process and understand and it takes a very experienced professional to create an image that captures the story in the right way. It has been difficult for people in the media lately – especially for women, who have experienced all kinds of harassment. Do you have any advice for other photographers out there, especially women or women photojournalists? I do not know if I have good advice for avoiding or dealing with harassment, but I would say that at least for me, instead of getting annoyed when people underestimate me, I used it to my advantage. For a long time, people assumed I was a college photographer or a pet photographer. They did not assume that I was likely to do the kind of work I was doing. And I was able to use it to my advantage. Because if they underestimate you, they do not put their guards. So instead of letting it bother me or let it wear me down or believe what they thought of me, I just said okay and kept doing the job. This interview has been summarized and edited. The World Press Photo Exhibition 2022 premieres in Amsterdam on April 15. A world tour will travel to 70 cities in 30 countries, including Montreal, Toronto and Chicoutimi.
