Noah Berger, Protest Photographer
by Dan Wagner
Undercover Cops Holding Suspect at Oakland Protest — All Photos © Noah Berger
Undaunted by tear gas, unfazed by baton beatings, and undeterred when hit with rubber bullets, Noah Berger photographs protests because, “This is what I do for a living. I don’t have deeper thoughts on it. I’m simply a news photographer.” And as if this wasn’t enough to get my interviewer juices flowing, Noah also considered majoring in African American Studies, reads Toni Morrison, and would like to be reincarnated as a young, handsome, confident playboy. Read on as Noah tells us why and how he came to be the photographer he is.
DW: You’re based in Alameda, California. What’s that like?
NB: It’s kind of like the Staten Island of San Francisco. Compared to San Francisco, it’s pretty much blue collar and conservative. And it’s a little suburban island just off Oakland. I own a thirty-foot Chaparral boat that I often use for assignments. It’s a great boat. I also have a Hobie Catamaran sailboat. I live with my wife, ten-year-old son, and a Labrador named Boogie in a waterfront townhouse that’s about forty yards from the bay. We can see the San Francisco Embarcadero from our place.
DW: What was your path to becoming a professional photographer? When did you first become interested in photography, and what was your first camera?
NB: During my New Jersey childhood, I took a photography class in high school, and a class at ICP. After graduation, I enrolled as a writing major at UC Berkeley. Mostly, I learned photography while working for my high school and college newspapers. I was the news editor of my high school paper and the editor in chief of the yearbook and literary magazine. I came to photography from the writing side.
I drove to California the day after graduating high school. Luckily, I got a staff job at the college paper, The Daily Californian, before starting my freshman year. There were six or seven spots at the paper, and we each took turns working as the photographer-of-the-day. The thing that got me hooked was earning one hundred thirty dollars on my first day. We used to get paid back then. That was in the summer of 1992. I think I was shooting with a Pentax K-1000 camera – which I loved. It was an awesome camera.
Interestingly, on my second day at the newspaper, a woman broke into the chancellor’s office with a machete. This was followed by riots the next day. So I was covering that. I loved what I was doing – especially the adrenaline rush. You might say those were my first protest photos. During my tenure at the paper I worked as the news editor, wrote guest columns, and served in other areas as well. I wound up dropping out in 1995 to pursue a full time photography career.
DW: To whom did you show your work, to get the assignments?
NB: I started slowly because I didn’t need a lot of money. I worked for the Berkeley Voice, which was a weekly paper. We were getting about twenty-five-dollars an assignment. Which wasn’t a lot, but I had a darkroom. A friend and I built a darkroom at their office. I also began doing some low level PR work for Berkeley. Around that time, I showed my portfolio to the Oakland Tribune, and got an internship there. They had five papers in their chain, and I started working for all of them.
DW: How’s the journalism scene doing now?
NB: It’s so fucking depressing. I mean it’s so sad. Right now I feel like we haven’t taken a huge hit in the last six months, so I’m feeling a little better about it. I think it’s crazy. You watch all these people losing their jobs. All these papers reducing to millimeters of thickness – events that years ago you would have had twenty different photographers – now there are three of us who are pro, and everyone else with their cellphones. I mean it’s hard. The Tribune was a great paper. Now I think they have an eight-person office above a massage parlor. It’s hard on a personal level to watch that. And it’s hard watching all the news that doesn’t get covered, and all the things that don’t get light shined on them because there’s no money, no staff, and no impetus to cover them.
DW: Is the Oakland Tribune really above a massage parlor now?
NB: Yes, but it’s not a shady massage parlor.
DW: Are you with a stock photo agency?
NB: No. There are residual sales through each assignment – like with AP, and the stuff I shot for The New York Times. But almost all my income is from the initial assignments.
I don’t shoot anything that isn’t assigned. Usually my editor will call or text and say, “can you do this for us tomorrow?” AP takes good care of me. I don’t really have any complaints with that. Almost all my work is not based on whether the shoot works out. It’s based on getting hired to shoot it. I’m usually paid every time I leave my house. By news standards, it’s very fair.
DW: Noah, your website features beautiful photography of the America’s Cup, wildfires, and Black Lives Matter protests. Based on these photos, it looks like you’re at risk of being drowned, burned, or shot. Which situation do you find the most dangerous, and why?
NB: Ah, it’s a great question. So, protests are by far the most dangerous. It’s shifted in the last few years from there being incidental risk, to photographers being the target of the protesters anger. It’s not really abstract, because it happens fast, and it happens hard. On the first night of the George Floyd protests, I had four friends who were robbed of their gear – two of them at gunpoint. And if you try to take a picture of someone breaking a window, you’ll have someone come up and say they’re going to fuck you up if you pick up your camera. I’ve had people yell at me while I’m walking with protesters, “Put the camera down, Noah!”
DW: They know you?
NB: They know me. I’m a big white guy, older, and I don’t blend in. If I looked different, I might be able to blend in a little better. I could honestly say we’re in more danger than the police or the protesters, because the police have equipment, and they have each other. The protesters have masses, and the police are kind of bound by what they can do. They don’t always follow them, but there are limits to what they can get away with a lot of the time. But, it’s kind of open season on journalists.
DW: Which protests have been the most intense? Portland or San Francisco?
NB: Well, take Oakland for example. It’s – I mean it sucks – it’s become try to get a shot and then get out of there – and don’t get killed. Or don’t get robbed or beat up. It’s different in different cities.
In Portland it’s the reverse. There the protesters are mostly friendly to photographers and accepting – even when they’re vandalizing or doing things that you wouldn’t want on camera. You get a little bit of, “Why are you showing faces? Or don’t show faces.” For the most part they’re not super aggressive toward the press.
You have to watch out more for the police in Portland, who in my experience didn’t differentiate that much between the press and protesters. Especially in some of the beginning nights when I was hit with batons, shot, and sprayed in the face with mace when they realized I was a journalist. So up there you had to watch out more for the police. It’s just a different dynamic.
In Oakland, if things get really bad, I have a rule that if I’m within a block of the police line I can feel somewhat okay. That’s because if needed, I can retreat there. In Portland, it’s the reverse.
DW: You say you got shot. Was that with rubber bullets?
NB: Yeah, twice – one in the arm, and one in the chest. That was my second night in Portland. And that was also the night that I kind of got stuck in this area where the cops came out of a building fast. I was leaving, holding up my press pass, and saying, “I’m going, I’m going, I’m press!” Three cops surrounded me, and hit me with batons, while another cop shot me in the face with mace from a foot away.
There was a San Francisco Chronicle photographer who was clubbed a couple of years ago – when he was obviously just taking pictures and not participating. But for the most part, I feel the police in San Francisco recognize, and respect the press. Maybe not respect in the bigger sense, but they don’t treat us like protesters.
The other thing – is that in Portland you see dozens of protesters labeled press, who aren’t press. You’ll have a protester throwing rocks while displaying press ID. You don’t see that in Oakland. Even here, I’ll tuck my press pass in so it doesn’t show until the police are near. But in Portland you see so many protesters who are labeled press that I understand it can be harder for the police to distinguish who is legit.
Noah Berger getting attacked with gas by the police - © Josh Edelson
DW: Probably a dumb question, but how bad does it hurt to be shot with a rubber bullet?
NB: The shot in the arm left a pretty decent hole. Luckily, one of my photographer friends has a wife who’s a doctor. She told me how to treat my wounds. I tend to not worry about stuff too much. But they really impressed it upon me that I needed to treat it right. So I did, and it healed up in a few days. And the shot in the stomach produced a big welt that lasted a week. It’s not the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.
DW: You must have to hope the person shooting at you is a really good shot.
NB: You worry about that with the headshots. There have been people shot in the head with beanbags and projectiles. Or they put out flash-bangs that explode really close to you. I didn’t have earplugs at the beginning. I borrowed them from somebody. But when you have things exploding two feet from your head and on the other side, you have some protesters throwing exploding things as well, you feel trapped.
DW: Do you ever feel that some of the police or protestors enjoy violence?
NB: I don’t think I can really speak to either side attacking the press and having that feeling. But, there are certainly some nights when you see the police just go full bore on protesters. You see it in their eyes. They’re ramped up.
There was one night in Berkeley – I think it was during one of the first Black Lives Matter protests. There was a crowd of college students out. I mean – you can look at a crowd and tell if they’re the ones breaking windows. They were right next to the Berkeley campus. And this was not a violent crowd. Maybe there was a dumpster set on fire. Minimal. And there was mutual police aid with police from all over the region. You could just see it in the cops’ eyes. They were aggressive, they were into it, and they hit them with batons and teargas for about twenty blocks – all the way to the Oakland border. On those kinds of nights you have to watch out.
On another occasion, I spent two nights with the Feds in Portland inside a building that was under siege during the protests. And from that, the takeaway was these are people who were doing their jobs. They weren’t thrilled about it. This isn’t what they joined whatever force they’re in to do, but they’re still going to do it.
DW: Please tell me about your Black Lives Matter protest photo of a white man holding a pistol in one hand, and the jacket of a black man on top of another black man on the ground with his other hand. I’m amazed at how close you got to the gunman, and that you used on-camera flash.
NB: So, it was not on-camera flash, I never do on-camera flash – it was on a cord! And luckily I shot in raw, because it was really over-exposed. I had to bring it down quite a bit. It was a few stops over. So it wasn’t perfectly exposed. Interestingly, Reuters instituted a raw ban after that shot was taken. I would have had trouble saving that shot after the raw ban.
That photo really stands out in that probably out of everything I’ve shot it’s the best example of a photo not telling the whole story. You look at that photo, and what do you think looking at it? If you had to sum it up in two seconds what would you say your takeaway is?
DW: I was thinking the white man with the gun could be an undercover cop. The black man he’s holding by the jacket, who’s on the ground on top of the black man could be a second undercover cop. The black man on the bottom is under arrest. And the people in the crowd being held at gunpoint are protesting what’s going on. Or this could be a yahoo with a gun trying to cause trouble. Either way, I felt there was more to the picture.
NB: Yeah, there’s a lot to that. Good guess. So, they’re both undercover cops. It was an interesting night. There was a small protest. I think it was the first round of Black Lives Matter. It was a small crowd that had peacefully marched from Berkeley to Oakland. I don’t normally like to walk that much – and it was at least three miles. The crowd had started to thin out. It was getting late – about eleven or so. And there wasn’t a lot of energy to it. And then a few people started breaking windows – which happens – nothing insane, but there were people smashing windows.
Noah Berger wearing a gas mask.
Due to clouds, the police were unable to track the crowds by helicopter. For this reason there were undercover cops trying to blend in with the crowd. And there were no other police around. So the undercover cops were their eyes on the ground. Sometimes you’ll hear these narratives from protesters that the police are the ones breaking windows to instigate violence. I’m not a fan of that narrative, because I’ve never seen it happen. There’s a lot of misinformation.
So anyhow, these guys were marching with the crowd, and at some point the crowd turned on them because one guy said, “That guy’s a cop! I recognize him from a YouTube video.” The crowd started yelling at them. One guy came up and hit one of the undercover cops on the back of the head, or took his hat – something like that. The momentum was really building. The crowd was starting to surround these guys. So the white cop took out his gun to hold the crowd back, and the black cop pinned the black suspect down. They called for help on the radio. Thirty seconds later sixty cops appeared, and made a semicircle around them.
The photo to me, knowing it’s a cop – conveys crazy cop pulls his gun on peaceful protesters. That’s what the image says to me if you don’t know the backstory. There’s a decent chance those guys would have been hurt if he didn’t draw his gun. Another interesting thing about that photo is that Reuters is very conservative – not politically, but conservative on their ethics and business practices. I had filed the photo at 1 a.m., and the next morning the editors wanted to put out a retraction because they couldn’t confirm it was a cop. Luckily the California Highway Patrol confirmed it was a cop around two or three in the afternoon.
DW: What are the effects of tear gas?
NB: One night I went to sleep in my car – and I still had teargas on me. In the morning, the sun coming through the car windows made my arms burn. And I was like, “What’s going on? Why are my arms burning?” It was due to the sun activating the teargas irritants.
DW: Is your size helpful for shooting protests? How tall are you?
DW: How do you unwind after stressful photo shoots? Do you have pets or other hobbies such as playing an instrument?
NB: Yeah, both of those. But I wouldn’t say I use them to unwind. I kind of just stare off into space and fall asleep a lot. My wife knows that it takes me three or four days to get back to normal. She’s very understanding about that.
DW: How has COVID-19 affected your photography career?
DW: The reason I brought up the flash is because when you’re that close to someone, and your flash goes off, and it’s that tense of a situation, and the guy’s got a gun – they might think your flash is from a gun muzzle and react very badly. I thought you were very brave to take that photo. And I was wondering if the guy flinched from the flash, and if he had any reaction to your presence.
NB: No. He was really amped up and focused on keeping the crowd back. It was a wide-angle lens, and I was close. And it was really scary.
There have been two times when I was around cops who drew their guns. It’s really scary! They’re afraid. And there’s a lot going on. You don’t know what they’re going to do. And I imagine they don’t know what they’re going to do either.
DW: Are you drawn to protest photography for social reasons, dramatic photo opportunities, danger, a combination of the three, or something else?
NB: I’m not motivated by the issues. I’m not an activist, or motivated by the cause. I would say my interest is tactical. I’m really interested in what protesters do – what police do – and then obviously the adrenaline, and the photos that come out of it are the appeal.
DW: So basically, do you say, I’m a photographer – these are current events, and this is what I do for a living?
NB: I think “this is what I do for a living” is the most accurate description. I don’t have deeper thoughts on it. I’m simply a news photographer.
DW: Your night photo of stopped traffic on a double six-lane highway is awesome. Where was this shot taken, and how did you get the high vantage point? Do you shoot with drones?
NB: That photo got a lot of play. It was a group of protesters who took over the freeway. There are a lot of different ways to shoot these situations. I saw there was an overpass, and made the decision to shoot from there. It’s kind of a default to shoot from high vantage points.
I do shoot with drones – but not that much for protests because it’s illegal to fly over people. Plus, you need to stay nimble when things are happening fast, and you can’t do that while flying a drone.
DW: What do family and friends think of all this?
NB: I think my wife has accepted what I do, and the risks involved. My son who’s ten now had some trouble with it a couple of years ago. It was bothering him and giving him anxiety. My work makes me have to leave home suddenly, and at odd times, and go into intense situations. It’s hard on the family. Being a journalist is not a family-friendly job – even if you’re not in dangerous situations. Fortunately fellow photographers are very supportive of one another.
DW: What do you do to protect yourself?
NB: In terms of safety gear, I own a bulletproof helmet and vest. A lot of protesters wear them, too. So it doesn’t stand out too much. I use a gas mask all the time. The down side of wearing protective gear is that you sweat a lot. You’re wearing something for a long time that has a very small chance of being needed.
NB: I’m 6’6” and 225 pounds. It’s very helpful. It’s great for Hail Mary shots.
DW: What camera gear do you typically use for protest photography?
NB: I’ve always shot with top-of-the-line, Nikon, flagship cameras. Last year I switched to Nikon mirrorless Z6 cameras, because you can shoot silently with them. There are some issues – such as the battery life is really atrocious. It lasts an hour or so. And the low-light capabilities of these cameras are about a stop worse.
I carry my gear in Think Tank Photo lens pouches. For protests I use two cameras, one with a 17-35 mm zoom, and a second with a 70-200 mm f/2.8 during the day, and a fast prime at night. My favorite Nikon lens of all time, which is crazy because it’s so cheap, is the 50mm f/1.8. I love it because it nails focus.
DW: In terms of our society, what has covering protest photography taught you? Do you have an internal time limit on how much of this type of photography you can do?
NB: That’s a good question. No, I don’t really have a limit on it. Actually, one of the things that really affects me in life is seeing people being ugly to other people. I’m okay with death and destruction. Things that affect other people don’t really affect me. It’s outside of my emotional range.
DW: Do you compartmentalize?
NB: I think I just have less of a reaction than other people. I don’t think I compartmentalize. I also think I have less emotional bandwidth than other people. But seeing people be ugly to other people really affects me. You see that here with how the protesters will treat the cops. Like we had one night a couple of weeks ago where a protester was yelling at a cop, “Your wife is fucking a firefighter right now – 45 percent of cops beat their wives. Are you going home to beat your fucking wife? Is she sitting at home waiting for her beating?” And this just went on and on and on. That’s hard to watch! Not because I’m on the cop’s side. It’s just hard to watch someone be really ugly to another person.
NB: Well, I’m making a lot less. Most of my income comes from corporate photography. And news only pays 10-20 percent of what a corporate assignment pays. So yeah, the income is way down. On the flip side, it’s been nice having the time to do these news stories.
DW: Do you have a favorite book?
NB: I wasn’t very serious about school during college. And the only teacher that I liked taught African American Studies. So I pretty much only took one class per term – her class. It was the minimum you could do to stay enrolled. I ended up reading a lot of African American authors such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Toni Morrison was my favorite. I read a lot of Stephen King. I love his stories.
DW: Do you believe in reincarnation? If yes, what would you like to come back as?
NB: If I could come back, I’d would come back as a less socially awkward, more handsome youth so I could sow my wild oats more than I did – because I feel like I missed out on a little of that when I was younger. I wasn’t especially smooth with the ladies – not horrible, but not smooth. I’ve gotten better over time. So I would come back as young, handsome, and confident. But no, I don’t believe in reincarnation.
DW: Noah, it’s been a pleasure interviewing you. Thanks for your time, and I look forward to seeing more of your work.
NB: Thank you!
I hope this interview has inspired you. You can view more of Noah’s work on his website and on Instagram. Thanks for visiting The Cranky Camera!