Robyn Stevens Brody employed her skills as a photographer to persevere during the pandemic.
Someday when her grandkids ask how she remained resilient during the pandemic, Robyn Stevens Brody will likely say she spent a great deal of her time walking outdoors, moved to a larger house, turned 50 and adopted a Bernese Mountain Dog named Bernie. Oh, and she and her husband, Mark, contracted COVID-19 and spent two miserable weeks last July out of commission.
A Poplar Hill mother of four, Brody also became an internationally known freelance photographer whose images from the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 were seen on such media outlets as CNN, “60 Minutes,” The New York Times, ABC News, MSNBC and The Times of Israel.
She says photography has been her way of coping not only with the anxiety and isolation of the pandemic but the social unrest over the past year-and-a-half. Previously, her photography primarily centered on her kids when they were younger.
“I’ve always been labeled an activist, and a lot of my decisions are rooted in social justice,” says Brody, a Chizuk Amuno congregant and Baltimore native. “And I’ve always kept a camera nearby since I got one for a bat mitzvah gift, so the two just met in this rodeo.”
From the outset of the pandemic, Brody started taking photos — from the safe distance of her car — of different scenes around the area as a form of documentation. Among these images were outside eateries, ubiquitous mask-wearing walkers, social distancing practices and “Business Closed” signs posted on doors.
“I couldn’t just sit at home, and I was afraid of getting sick. I needed to keep busy and be outside, and I wanted to become more engaged,” she says. “It was like I was waking up to a new world, so I wanted to capture it on film and preserve it.”
After the George Floyd tragedy in Minneapolis and the acceleration of the Black Lives Matter movement, Brody started attending rallies and gatherings in Baltimore and across the country. For instance, she photographed the memorial vigil for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the “Stop the Steal” rally held by Trump supporters last November, the inauguration of President Joe Biden, and demonstrations in Minneapolis during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer convicted in Floyd’s murder.
“After I got sick, I started leaving my car and taking pictures, and I became a Forrest Gump of sorts,” Brody says.
But her big moment arrived when she “went global” while attending the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Brody traveled to D.C. on a lark, hoping to take photos that someday might wind up in a book of her photography. She shot video and photos for about eight hours there.
“I was a little afraid, but I felt I should go,” she says. “I just tried to be inconspicuous and thought, ‘Maybe something will happen.’ I’m pretty good under pressure, and nobody messed with me at all.”
Brody describes being at the insurrection as “surreal and upsetting. I still have not processed everything I saw that day. I was sad to see Confederate flags and symbols of hate. I wrote a friend, ‘Oh my God, they’re storming the Capitol!’ But I just focused, feeling I had a job to do.”
At one point, Brody says she was trying to reach the Capitol steps but her eyes began watering from the firing of tear gas. Fortuitously, she walked over to the western side of the Capitol compound where she had a panoramic vantage point of the unfolding events.
“I don’t usually do video but I started to shoot video, and I was at the right place at the right time,” she says. “I was the only person who got the footage of them going up the Capitol steps, and that’s what [many media outlets] used.
“I don’t think I have the skills of other photographers, but I have the eye. My eye separates me from the pack,” she says. “I just had an opportunity that other people in the industry who are trained for it didn’t get. It’s incredible to me that this will be part of the historical record, but I didn’t realize at the time it was history at that level. Everything just lined up for me that day.”
Brody’s footage of Trump supporters storming the Capitol was posted “and it spread like wildfire,” she says. “I still am getting calls — ‘Do you have anything heading from the East Lawn?’”
Brody says she still hopes to eventually publish a book of her photos from the riot and other events.
“I did all of this because I have such a love for photography, and my favorite things are the rallies and protests,” she says. “I just like being where the action is, and I had to find positive things to focus on. It was a depressing time, and this was my coping mechanism. The world doesn’t happen in my living room, and I don’t want to watch everything on TV. If I have the skill set to photograph something and can use it for good, that’s a euphoric high for me. …
“I experienced a lot of growth during the pandemic. It was a reflective time for me,” Brody says. “I feel a lot of gratitude and appreciation, and I don’t want to budge.”