Who Gets to Live in Peace?
A photography and spoken word project from 1999 in Durham, NC
In 1999, I drove around with a unit of the Durham police department as part of a class with the Center for Documentary Studies. This video includes my photographs along with words reflecting on my experience with communities living and working at the edge of the law.
Special thanks to the Durham police department and Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies for making the project possible.
Who Gets to Live in Peace?
Durham, NC - May, 1999
Colin MutchlerI grew up in the Jersey Suburbs
Never really liked Cops
Fat white men yelling, STOP!
But Durham is such a different place.
The law is enforced by good people on both sides
of this static subtle civil war of
twisted words, statistics blurred
into focus
what is the punishment for being poor?
how does it feel to be watched?
hey, slow down, children playing
tough, like that police man with the white lights
shot in the home of a possible criminal
friend of a dealer, mother of children
on the other side
where confusion and fear glow through false appearance
in quick moving worlds of power and risk
I ask, who gets to live in peace?