A Man, His Camera And Photos For All

By Melissa Sher

Photographer David Moriya was supposed to fly to Los Angeles for a film festival on January 21, 2017. But he ended up canceling his flight to stay in New York. “I knew I had to be with my city for the Women’s March,” he said.

At the Women’s March, Moriya took hundreds of photos and ended up donating many of them to the organizers. After the New York protest, the once primarily lifestyle, street and music photographer made a decision to cover as many marches, rallies and demonstrations as he could.

Since making that decision, Moriya has covered more than 50 events in the last 10 months and amassed thousands of photos. “I had all of these great photos, and they were just sitting there on my hard drive and they weren’t going to use. Some could go on Instagram and Facebook, but that was it. And I didn’t want the story to die there,” said Moriya. “I knew the work could be used for something. And that was the start of me looking around and saying, ‘You want photos? Here you go. Take them.’”

As a result of Moriya’s desire to offer nonprofits and other interested groups photos that could be put to use, his website, Rogue Photo, was born. It’s a nonprofit photojournalism and stock photo hub that offers royalty-free images related to “opposition of discrimination, bigotry, silencing of the press and defunding of government agencies.”

And while all of the photos are available for free, donations are appreciated. “Photography is what I do,” said Moriya. “It is what drives me every day. It is my personal way of fighting and spreading the word about what is going on in the world.”

Take a look at just some of Moriya’s photos from the past year, below, and view more of his work on Rogue Photo website: