When social media exploded with videos of masked White men marching on the National Mall, 23-year-old Getty Images editorial news intern Finn Gomez sprang into action.
It was his first week on the job. As the United States celebrated its 250th birthday, Gomez captured an iconic image that depicts a progeny of White supremacy enveloping the nation.
Gomez spoke with The Emancipator about what he saw on July 4, the first photo he snapped of the Patriot Front at 9:41 am EDT and a nearly 25-minute train ride on the Orange Line of the Metro in Washington, D.C. The group disembarked in Maryland’s most Black-populated county: Prince George’s County.
This recount has been edited and condensed for clarity.
It was very hot. I had just woken up [for] sunrise features, which is when you’re sent out right as the sun comes up to help supply photos around the world. I’d gotten back to the office, I started filing those images.
I decided … I’m gonna go back out to the Mall, the Great American State Fair [and] try to get some more of those images to get out. And an editor had sent a video of [the Patriot Front] marching around the Capitol and said, “Hey, if someone can grab this.”
I happened to be the one who was out in the field at the time, and I said, “I’ll go see if I can find them.” So, that’s when I made my way toward Eastern Market station.
First Photo of The Day
This is a large group; this is a big place to be in. I knew it was big in the news and I knew that these photos would carry some weight. And that’s why we’re there, right? But to me, in the moment, truly, it was, “What am I seeing and how can I make good images? How can my exposure be right on a day like this?” They’re moving in between things, and at this point, it’s whatever drew my eye and that’s what I photographed.
So, I went into it knowing that they had masks on, they had khakis, they were fully dressed, and it was really hot. The first thing I thought was, “Someone is gonna be struggling with the heat.” And I knew that that was going to be one of the first images I made. Then very quickly they all got in a giant line and they made their way down to the subway.
Where Intimidation Met Everyday Life
In my head, I kind of saw it as just like this equalizer of sorts. … They’re dressed the same way. They’re there with a common purpose. And when they’re walking through the streets, they’re in control. When they’re leading these protests, they are controlling the situation because of their size and their group.
But when you get on a subway metro next to everyone going about their day, it’s a very interesting contrast. So, that’s immediately what my mind went to was, “How are these people going to look on a subway car, the one that I actually ride to work every day? How are the people on the train cars going to look? How are they going to react?” And that’s what I looked for. As soon as I saw them lining up to go in the train station, I knew I [had] to be down there by the time they get down there.
There was one lady who was sitting in the train station on a bench. I went down the escalator; I immediately saw her. She has this straw hat on. She’s got, like, her day dress on, and I was like, “Alright, well there’s a photo right there.” And I spoke to her. She asked me, “Do you know who they are?” And I said, “They’re a group called Patriot Front,” because that’s truly most of what I knew at the time. I said, “They just finished a march, and it looks like they’re about to ride the Metro.”
She was a little bit of an older woman, and eventually she actually asked them to take a selfie. She had someone take her phone, and she grabbed a photo with them.
The Moment Seen Around the World
The photographer and members of the Patriot Front got on the train. I was looking through this train car, and there were two people [who were not Patriot Front members]. Roswell Encina, who is the one who’s much closer to me. I had finished photographing him and I kind of stood up to get a read of “What’s going on? Who’s in this train car?” I knew that there were two people on the train car, Roswell and the other man. I don’t know his name. I was on the other end of the train car. I can’t possibly imagine what [the Black man] was saying. It looked like he was saying something. They all had masks up, so I couldn’t see if they were responding. He got off after one stop, so there wasn’t much time to really tell what was going on.
The Last Stop
I was on the train for, I believe, the 25-minute train ride that got off at the New Carrollton station. …
And the one thing that struck me was the fact that when they used their Metro cards, each member used a paper Metro card. When they got to the final stop, a man held out a giant grocery store bag, like the grocery store Giant. He held the bag out, and one by one, they put the tickets in the bag. So no one used any personal identifying information. And that’s why I stood there and tried to capture that photo of them putting the tickets in the bag. … And then they all went their separate ways.
So, I went up in a parking garage. I’m like, “Oh my god, I’m gonna get above them.” I thought they were gonna congregate or do something down there but they didn’t. … The last I saw was them running around a corner away from New Carrollton station.
Witness History
I knew they were a White nationalist group. I knew they were not a group to mess around with. And at that point, I was like, “Okay, I know what I’m going into right now, and I just need to capture what’s going on.”
The reality is, I was in work mode. First week there and I’m like, “I cannot mess this up. I’m here. I gotta do the job. In a city like DC, you have to be on it 24-7. You never know what’s gonna happen here, and this is the case of that, right?
I woke up at 5 in the morning on the 4th, and I got back home after the fireworks show at, I think, 4 in the morning, so close to 23 hours.
And as photojournalists, our goal is to capture what we see in a way that doesn’t tell people what to think. We want to show them what we saw.
