When Johnny Nguyen snapped this almost instantly iconic photo of what some termed “the hug shared around the world,” the Portland Community College student and aspiring photographer had never had one of his thousands of images published. This was his big break.
The 20-year-old student said that outside of Instagram, “this is the first time I’ve ever had anything officially published. I can’t believe it. It’s getting crazy exposure.”
There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s clear that Nguyen has talent. But the image that first broke on OregonLive.com of Portland Police Sgt. Bret Barnum hugging 12-year-old Devonte Hart during a Portland protest in solidarity with Ferguson rallies seems to have been staged to tug on our heartstrings.
But the photo shows only one moment… and a cropped one at that. It tells a narrative that wasn’t consistent with what was going on at the rally outside of the Portland Justice Center. The officer appears to be comforting the boy in a truly moving moment of reconciliation. But that’s not what’s happening.
Hart was at the protest with his mother who described him as having a big heart. He had a “Free Hugs” sign and was hugging anyone and everyone who took him up on the offer. After coming over and talking with the youth, Portland police sergeant Bret Barnum realized that this would be a great photo opportunity. It was not a spontaneous hug breaking out in the middle of an ugly protest. It was a police officer taking advantage of an offer extended to all, in a way that would provide great “P.R.” for the department. It was an ingenious idea for the Sergeant, but it was not the scenario that most believed it to be when they shared the image by the hundreds of thousands on Facebook and Twitter.
We should be extremely careful about buying into such images, because they suppress the true voices protesting, and offer a feigned image of reconciliation that has simply never occurred. There is little question that Nguyen had no intentions of creating propaganda, but that was the unintended consequence of this viral photo op seized upon by the Portland Police Sergeant.