Ashley Canay built her photography career on love—shooting couples is what she does. But then COVID-19 came.
“When we were in the lockdown phase, a lot of my weddings got postponed,” Canay told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I was in quarantine along with everyone else, and then the protests started up. I remember thinking, ‘This is something that should be documented.’ That’s when I started to go out and take photos.”
Canay wasn’t the only Black photographer out documenting the protests. Through her social media connections, Canay saw that Black photographers around the nation were out capturing protests in their neighborhoods. It made her wonder if there were any other Black photographers in Tampa doing the same. She discovered about a dozen Black photographers documenting Tampa’s protests via Facebook and Instagram (@ashleycanay). Most, like Canay, were professional portrait/event photographers whose work dried up during lockdown.
“We got together and decided to organize ourselves so that we could spread out,” says Canay. The goal was to capture as many of Tampa’s protests as possible. Canay began with the infamous University Mall protest, a peaceful day march that led to a testy night where a Champs store was set on fire. It was the first protest she’d ever been to, and she didn’t know what to expect. Since then, she’s learned that there are different kinds of protests.
“There are protests and there are riots and then there are rallies and marches—organized rallies and marches and unorganized rallies and marches,” Canay told CL. “And sometimes people will just gather because there’s something going on in that space. You have to be careful what you’re walking up on.”
One of the most memorable protests Canay witnessed happened in Tampa’s Riverview neighborhood. She describes the event as dramatic and somewhat confusing. People boarded up their businesses, protestors blocked a major intersection, and police detoured traffic around them. “It was a lot,” Canay told CL. She never found out who organized the event, if it was organized, but someone had made a flier for it.
Another memorable protest for Canay was the National Panhellenic Council’s Tampa chapter protest at Curtis Hixon Park. The National Panhellenic Council governs nine historically African American sororities and fraternities often referred to as the Divine Nine. The collegiate groups are committed to academic excellence and community service. Canay joined Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. while a student at the University of Florida. “My sorority is 108 years old,” Canay told CL, “and we’re still marching for the same things.”
Generally speaking, despite a few unorganized efforts, Tampa’s protests were relatively peaceful. Still, Canay had to be careful where she placed herself as she photographed these events. As a wedding photographer, Canay wasn’t accustomed to the dangers of documenting protests.
“I made sure to keep both eyes open while shooting, making sure I’m aware of where the police are in relation to where the protesters are and where I am,” Canay told CL, “because there are places where I did get pepper sprayed. I put myself in between the protestors and the cops and I’m taking pictures of them coming at me. Meanwhile, they’re pepper spraying. That was when I first started going out there. Then I realized I have to stop and pay attention to where everybody is.”
Canay posted photos on her Instagram page (@ashleycanay) throughout the ordeal. Eventually, people suggested she place the photos into a gallery show, but Canay didn’t know any galleries. So she Googled, “galleries in Tampa,” and that’s how she discovered Mergeculture.
Mergeculture’s Tony Krol loved the idea so much that he proposed having a show within a couple of weeks. Having never even shown her work in a gallery before, let alone curated and hung a show, Canay was intimidated by the timeline. Krol suggested that each of the 12 photographers pick two photos of theirs to print and bring to the gallery.
“Everybody printed their two photos, and [Krol] hung everything up,” Canay told CL. “He really took the idea and ran with it, so we’re really grateful to him.” After Mergeculture/Café Hey, the photos traveled to the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (FMoPA) in August.
Even with Florida on lockdown, weddings canceled, and protests happening all over Tampa, Canay tells me she still had a few couples sessions in the middle of all of this.
“They were talking to me about protest stuff, and I’m ranting about what’s going on, and I’m just in this space,” Canay told CL. “The photos turned out fine, but I remember being in this tug of war with myself, mentally.”
When you shoot couples, Canay said, you have to be happy. “I can’t be enraged. [I can’t be] in this upset and mad space where you’re just looking at everybody sideways.”
After a while, she had to step back from it all.
“I’m not even the same person I was going into this,” Canay told CL. “Now I’m speaking out more about these things, but it’s an issue not to lose myself in this, and reminding myself to take breaks, and remember I still have to pay my bills, so I can’t sacrifice time that I would be giving to my clients for all this stuff.”
“I’ve been talking to friends, and a lot of people have been saying the same things, like ‘Make sure to take a break. Don’t sit in this,’” Canay told CL. “I was in a very ugly, bad place. I couldn’t just sit and look at this all day. But I was glad that people embraced [the work].”
Opening the box and sorting through everyone’s photos after the FMoPA show was a surreal experience for Canay.
“It kind of makes you take a step back, and think, ‘we were actually in this,’” says Canay. “It was eerie. It was weird.”
Canay’s wedding photography business is finally picking up again, and she’s ready to return to that happy space. But looking back on it all, Canay says she’s thankful for the experience of it, “I was proud and humbled to be able to witness all these things happening in Tampa.”
Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.
Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter.
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2021.