Chicago 2020,

At the height of the George Floyd riots of 2020 in Chicago during the pandemic, our mayor decided to put up the bridges to help slow the destruction of the city. As a Chicago-based photographer, I decided to take my chances and photograph these historic measures. This was only the second time in Chicago’s entire history that the bridges had to be pulled up. I wanted to photograph it in black and white to pay tribute to the tension between black and white people during these times, as well as the political division across the country. Open edition, copyright Derek Nielsen Photography