This series of portraits of Occupy Wall Street protesters and supporters was made in a makeshift studio in Zuccotti Square in New York City in 2011. I went to the OWS protests initially out of a sense of curiosity, I was surprised that the people that I found there didn't match the image I had in my mind and that this representation was totally absent from the news media. The carnival-like atmosphere was a diverse and fascinating cross section of American life that was at once jubilant and defiant. I set out to create a few portraits that would be emblematic of the movements diversity and wound up with hundreds of portraits shot over the course of 8 weeks.