Gabriella Gregor Splaver, Freelance Photojournalist:
My name is Gabriella Gregor Splaver, and I am a freelance photojournalist.
I graduated from Columbia, where I was a student photojournalist for The Columbia Daily Spectator.
Shortly after October 7, there were immediately protests on our campus. Literally, it was wake up, go cover the encampment as long as I can, go back home, go to sleep, and do it again. We were able to, like, navigate certain parts of the encampment and cover things in ways that I think a lot of the outside press were there couldn’t.
And that moment, I was like, OK, what can I bring to the table that all of these other experienced photojournalists around me maybe can’t? So, for me, it was, I know this community, and I know the difference between what is happening right now and all these other students that are walking to class or what it was like two weeks ago.
You know, on the one hand, as a photojournalist, you’re supposed to be covering these things unbiasedly and what’s actually occurring. But at the same time, as a student of Columbia, I know the person who’s sitting in that tent. I know the person who’s in that building. And I’m surrounded by a lot of my peers.
I really wanted to capture kind of almost a student’s perspective of what was unfolding.
