Brad Sigal: Welcome to Get the Picture podcast. I'm really excited to have this conversation with today's guest, Taylor Dahlin Taylor, thanks so much for joining me today on Get the Picture to talk about both your photography and more generally your hyper-local journalism.
Taylor Dahlin: Thank you for having me.
Brad Sigal: Why don't we get started just with a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I guess mostly focus on covering like hyperlocal Minneapolis politics. I have for maybe the last decade, but gotten more serious in the last five or so years doing those things and just so politics mostly, but also just various like social issues that are popping up and protests and things like that. So I mostly stick to like writing about things on either Twitter or Blue Sky, but I do sometimes post and videos ⁓ Instagram too.
Brad Sigal: And can we, let's just maybe get into a little more detail when you talk about local or hyper local and photography. what does that mean? what are you covering?
Taylor Dahlin: kind of focus a lot on just like my neighborhood. I live in Loring Park. I've lived here for over years now. So very familiar with kind of the ins and outs of things. And so I just kind of cover the politics of the area and kind of like the trends like notice, you know, like how things are acting and then how politics affects that. So hyperlocal and then also just like of Minneapolis government stuff, but that means basically when it comes to something like state politics or even national politics, don't know anything. I really only know city at the highest level.
Brad Sigal: So like, a kid, you sitting in front of the watching C-SPAN? Have you always been someone who'd like to sit through ⁓ and live tweet through 12 hour party nominating conventions or like excruciatingly long and tedious city council meetings why did you start doing that?
Taylor Dahlin: was always kind of into politics as a kid to some extent. I would like read the newspaper every day growing up just to know things. I had like a kind of embarrassing crush on like Norm Coleman when he was the mayor of St. Paul when I was a kid. Like he was a... Yeah, when I, you know, even when he was Republican, I didn't care. ⁓ so just always been into politics. And like, whenever I went to the state fair, was, I would always get excited to meet the politicians. So... ⁓
Brad Sigal: Before he went Republican, maybe. Yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: there's always been that interest. And then, yeah, as I kind of got back into it when I moved to Loring Park.
Brad Sigal: that's one aspect of the things that at least I noticed most about what you do is covering those kinds of, whether it's city council meetings or different boards and commissions or ⁓ One other thing that you do, and this maybe gets a little more at the photography side of things, is you'll just post pictures of houses and buildings and stuff, stickers and graffiti on the streets around neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Is that something you've always done or how does that fit into what you try to do?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, it is. I look back when I was in high school, so like, the early, digital camera when we had like one megapixel, two megapixel digital cameras, but in high school, I would carry one around all day. And so when I look back and like these, my high school photo albums that I have digitally, it would be like one day and I have just like 30 photos of my friends and like all these various things. So. ⁓
Brad Sigal: You
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, and so I can go back like 20 years into my photos and there's like the same types of photos I take now but of like downtown and I can see like what kind of graffiti and stickers were doing and like what buildings were like back then. So yeah, I've always had an interest in kind of just like documenting what I'm seeing around me.
Brad Sigal: And that's something that I think both has a value in the here and now where. Not everybody, maybe partly because of our atomized society where everyone stays inside and is on their computer rather than walking around as much as ⁓ used to happen. But it's kind of cool just to see what's happening around a neighborhood. And in addition to being valuable now, I think there's also a longer term value as neighborhoods change. You can look back like you're talking about now when you were in high school or whatever and see like, whoa, that used to be this other store or this other building. Yeah. Sorry, that wasn't exactly a question, but.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, that's... No, I mean, that's exactly it. it's things that like photos that you maybe at the time you think are just like kind of a nothing photo, but then 20 years or 10 years past, you look back and you're like, ⁓ that's actually a valuable little detail that I ⁓ would forgotten about or this little character aspect to a neighborhood. So it's like why now I try to take photos that I think are just like... Like why would I want a photo of this random intersection? right now it has no value, but maybe in 10 years I'll want to know what it looked like. So that's why I do a lot of that.
Brad Sigal: And so you said you've been doing this kind of work for around 10 years, think, or did you say 10 or 15? When did you realize or decide that going to a lot of local events and activities and walking around documenting things of interest to you in the neighborhood was actually like a thing, quote unquote, in this new media landscape that was something more than just a thing you do for fun?
Taylor Dahlin: I don't remember how I found him, but I started following Wedge Live on Twitter in probably maybe 2014, I think I first discovered John Edwards' account and then I didn't understand any of it because a lot of it is like that he would post are just these really like you have to, they're kind of like inside jokes or like levels of insight it has to be an element of understanding. So I found it and I remember just being like. I don't understand any of this, but it's funny. I get that it's funny. So I want to understand it. And so then that's really how I got into Minneapolis politics was wanting to get John's jokes. So that really was my gateway. so the first mayoral election I really paid attention to was 2017, which is I think when Frey was elected. And so then ever since it's just kind of snowballed where I just get more and more.
Brad Sigal: You Hahaha.
Taylor Dahlin: involved every kind of every year, every election cycle, which helped because we've had like seven since then.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, so you've mentioned Wedge Live now. I'd like to get a little more into that. you mentioned before that you published some on Blue Sky and Twitter in terms of your writings, photos, video. But also there's Wedge Live. You know, it's kind of an enigma in Minneapolis politics in a way. Like, in my opinion, it's... really the must listen podcast and must follow social media for anyone trying like you were trying to do trying to understand local Minneapolis politics. can you tell a little bit more about ⁓ what Live is?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, it's pretty much, John Edwards. It's one guy who lives in the wedge and just, moved here from Florida and he started going to a lot of neighborhood meetings and started tweeting what was happening at the neighborhood meetings and then city council meetings. and then maybe I think almost exactly five years ago, he started a podcast, which was kind of a joke by Jason Garcia to be like, if you get this many subscribers to your Patreon, we'll get you to start a podcast. ⁓ So how the podcast came about. And it's turned into this really, really valuable resource, especially think every year for elections, because pretty much ⁓ most candidates will go it. last year, of course, the Centrist City Council candidates will not. ⁓ make the appearance, but other than that, it's a really balanced.
Brad Sigal: He did get Linnea Palasano to do a bike ride with him, I remember, at one point, yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: That's true, but it's like the new, all of Minneapolis ones, they won't go on it. a, ⁓ I ⁓ think it gets people to open up a too especially when he does the bike ride style or any activity-based interviews, think activity gets people's brains moving differently.
Brad Sigal: So you mentioned that it's called Wedge Live and you mentioned that John Edwards started it, he lives in the wedge. you talk a little bit about the wedge? It is kind of a, I don't want to say unique, but it's one of the most interesting neighborhoods I think in Minneapolis.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, it is. It's like this area between Lyndale and Hennepin ⁓ and north of I think Lake Street and then south of not Franklin but that little area north of Franklin too. So it's this like wedge shape. So it's technically Lowry Hill East is the name but it's a very dense area and a of urbanist types who are really into like cycling and issues of upzoning, ⁓ transit. It's a very politically active creative neighborhood too in a way. Like there's a really cute outfit there called like street wheat. This guy just like sells baked goods off his porch now. ⁓ And then, you just they have the cat tour that John brings there. So it's just, there's a lot going on there.
Brad Sigal: when I think about Minneapolis and St. Paul, for that matter, they're both cities like if you compare to cities like in Latin America or in Europe that have a center and there's a culture of walking and hanging out and ⁓ Minneapolis and Paul, neither of them really have a center in that way. The wedge is one of those few neighborhoods where it is more dense and walkable. And there is sort of more of a ⁓ culture there's shops, there's, music venues, et cetera. and there are a lot of very politically engaged people there. So, I it makes sense in a sense that the wedge would give birth to something like wedge live. and the neighborhood where you cover and live is ⁓ adjacent to that, right? or very close to it.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, we're, yeah, just north of it on one area. And then there's also like one area we also have Stephen Square in between. But yeah, Loring, Loring's changed a lot. When I moved here, used to be kind of the neighborhood where the young professionals and like target workers lived. And there was a lot of like, more bars. And now that area is the North Loop. So we still have a really There's an interesting class division in Loring that I've found there's the condo owners who are wealthy and there's some very wealthy condo owners and then we also have just a lot of overall like ⁓ younger queer ⁓ POC renters a lot and you know with this current ICE invasion we really get to see that class divide in action. It's been very interesting.
Brad Sigal: And I'm really excited to get into the ICE invasion and occupation. it ⁓ also, when you were saying that, it reminded me as well, like the last Ward 7 City Council race, I think also really highlighted that class division. why don't we do that now, talk about Operation Metro Surge. You, as you've talked about, are someone who follows the intricate details of Minneapolis politics all the time for many years. You know probably more about the mayor, city council members, the police chief and precincts and city department directors, city budget details than any normal person would ever want to know. And now suddenly the eyes of the world are on Minneapolis with Trump's vilification of the Somali community and then the subsequent surge of
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah.
Brad Sigal: more than 3,000 heavily militarized and massed immigration enforcement officers tearing apart families, traumatizing the whole city, killing two ICE observers, Rene Good and Alex Preti on streets that you walk on and talk about ⁓ almost every day. And the midst of that, ⁓ an ⁓ level and sophistication in a lot of ways of resistance to all of that. So I'm really curious, that's sort of a long way to lead into a question as somebody who's followed Minneapolis politics so closely for so long. let's start with what your experience was of the intense activity in Minneapolis over the past few months.
Taylor Dahlin: was really almost to me because I, ⁓ the, it's kind of off in a way with the whole Nick Shirley video ⁓ and ⁓ the one that that is the viral one, the quality leering center, the misspelling that's at a cafe that's like right in my neighborhood, like Albie Kitchen's in Loring Park. that's, that just brought an element of like ⁓ weirdness to this whole of like, and we, know, even before the video came out, there was a report. among neighbors like, this guy's lurking around. ⁓ I kind of had a preview that was happening. It was all when when it the whole invasion though kicked off, I was in a really weird space because I had I had surgery January 13. it was a minor surgery, but I was not recovered. was staying in like south, not southwest, south. I don't know, Ward 12. I don't know what area of the city they would call that, maybe Southeast, to recover for a few weeks. So I wasn't in my own neighborhood, and I was still being really plugged into everything though, still involved as much as I could be from afar. But it was just a really bad timing to be staying outside of where you live and still trying to know what's going on where you live. Because the area where I was staying had... no activity, was just a quiet, sleepy little street. and then when I finally came home and was able to get more plugged in, had, like within days of me coming home, we had Greg Bovino come right by the daycare with his little convoy for a photo op. So it's just been nonstop crap like that.
Brad Sigal: So these are that are right in your neighborhood, things that you know so well, ⁓ better than probably people in the city. And then suddenly you have ⁓ local media paying closer national media, international media. ⁓ What's your assessment of the media did in covering both the occupation and the resistance? both the resistance from everyday just sort of standing watch at schools, things like that, from activist organizations that usually organized protests of 100 people, suddenly organizing protests of tens or even 100,000 people. And from small businesses that we walk by every day that became hubs of solidarity, whether it's Smitten Kitten or Pow Wow Grounds, what's your assessment of how the media did and what did you focus on in your coverage?
Taylor Dahlin: I think overall, I ⁓ got with a lot of the national coverage or the sheer amount of national journalists we had here. ⁓ But overall they did pretty good. I don't even know if there's any specifics locally I can think of, but I just remember feeling like some of the local coverage was maybe ⁓ too... ⁓ believing of the image Frey was trying to sell at the time, like that he was this hero that he was doing more than he actually was. I don't blame the national journalists for falling for that narrative that he's setting, but I feel like some of the local coverage just should have had more, I don't know, more context or more just like, like it wasn't until Robin Wonsley spoke at a press conference a few days ago and she, mentioned that like he never did ice patrol. He never did like school watch and you know he's a parent that's like an easy photo op even just put on a reflective vest stand on a corner with a whistle and so to not even meet that kind of bare minimum of like ⁓ don't know I just ⁓ wasn't the media ⁓ that of him where was he to do these things so I think ⁓ overall though a lot of the that was locally was really good like I really I loved what ⁓ John Collins at NPR was doing really great stuff. Sahan Journal as usual. Racket did really good stuff in terms of covering what restaurants and the food scene we're doing, ⁓ which a really cool angle. Yeah, ⁓ I all... ⁓ Yeah.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, things like rectangle pizza raising how much, you know, I don't even remember how much money and, know, Lido's burritos and just so many places doing so much.
Taylor Dahlin: Yep. Well, and that kind of coverage is necessary because like so many institutions were asleep on the job and it was up to the community to step up. ⁓
Brad Sigal: So you talked about already, I was gonna ask, but you already went there with Mayor Frey. So he got another one of his moments in the national media spotlight out of all of this. Well, as you mentioned, at least as far as you or I know, he didn't do any of those patrols or anything like that. He generally makes sure anything he does is very well documented and covered. So I assume we would know if he did, ⁓ but maybe not. ⁓ But. We do know that a number of city council members their staff were out in the neighborhoods literally every day and every night helping with Ice Watch, helping keep people safe, sending notifications when there were abductions in their ⁓ wards. your take on how local elected officials did and continue do because it's not over? And then secondarily, ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Check.
Brad Sigal: the role, what's your take on the role of the police locally, MPD?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I think a lot of local electeds did so much. mean, obviously like someone, think especially like Jason Chavez or Jamal Osman, who both had ⁓ communicate with lot of their constituents, but also have kind of the double duty of they were both getting out statements both in, English and then Spanish for Jason and ⁓ Jamal would put them out in Somali So that's just an extra level of work that they would do. ⁓ And it is still even happening today. know, just last week some of council aides found ⁓ ICE vehicles outside of City Hall. And so it was up to their aides and several little council members to come down and wait for the tow trucks to arrive. and again, this is a thing of like, where's the mayor? Because if you really want ICE to get the fuck out of Minneapolis, well, there they are parked in like MPD parking. Couldn't you just, wouldn't that be a good photo op? Mayor tows, you know what I mean? So. I don't think anyone ever figured out like what they were doing or whatever, but that, you know, that's something where we found out about this because it was the city council members who were posting it to their social media that this is going on. So a lot of them are still doing so much more. And I just it's, you know, I don't know what some a lot of council members who like voted, you voted against the rent or the eviction moratorium. Like, where are they on the streets? I don't know. ⁓ There's a very sharp divide, I think, between the progressive council members that you see that are just like on the ground doing the work and then the ones that you're just like, I don't know what the efforts are.
Brad Sigal: And even Council President Payne, he represents the Northeast Minneapolis where Central Avenue is a heavily immigrant corridor with lot of ⁓ businesses, Ecuadorian Consulate. he was constantly out there supporting community members as well as his ⁓ and posting and ⁓ information. yeah, markedly than what we saw from the mayor, I think.
Taylor Dahlin: down.
Brad Sigal: I'm curious your thoughts since you have been doing this for a while. you would just comparing Mayor Frey's role in this situation compared to when the MPD killed Justine de Mond or Damon, sorry if I'm mispronouncing it, ⁓ in southwest Minneapolis, which was another time when he jumped into the spotlight around that. Just that occurred to me and wondered if you had any thoughts on that.
Taylor Dahlin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, because that was when Hodges was mayor, I think, and then he kind of used, yeah, as his springboard, right. Right. And then, you know, of course, would, as we saw when when George Floyd was killed or when, any of these other than number of police killings, suddenly he wasn't the same ⁓ mayor that he was. you know, he had all the smoke for Betsy and then suddenly he's in that situation and it's not like.
Brad Sigal: And that was when he sort of jumped on that to get elected.
Taylor Dahlin: You know, I mean, the hypocrisy is just there's so many instances like that. and even then he was, there's another, he was just in the New York Times talking like Thomas Friedman. And he's just saying like that people, apparently in Minneapolis, we've come up with a new verb. It's called neighboring. Like that's when everyone's saying it. ⁓ I know. So it's just, he think it's just, he's just a habit of going to the press, any national press and just saying things. And I don't know. And you asked about the police too. It's, know, they said that they had already ⁓ their overtime budget already for this year. ⁓ ⁓ something that Frey also in this New York Times interview that just came out, he claimed that a lot of his ⁓ are thanking MPD for helping ICE, which like, I don't know that is. ⁓
Brad Sigal: You
Taylor Dahlin: did that. it's like why? Sure, they didn't help them, but they also just sat around and just collected a ton of overtime. Because like, what did they do to collect all that overtime? I mean, I'm sure it's just like, crowd control, but it just feels like milking a situation where and then they want like, pats on the back for like, oh, we didn't help ICE. and even though there's situations like Jason Chavez tried pushing O'Hara about 29th and Pillsbury. like Jason Chavez was on the scene of those abductions and he said, I saw MPD doing crowd control for ICE. And O'Hara just didn't have anything to say to that or any of the other examples that people will present to them of like, here's a real ⁓ world scenario of like, didn't intervene to help. And they're just like, well, we didn't get any reports. ⁓ So it just feels a grift.
Brad Sigal: So from this conversation, if people have listened this far, you can hear that your coverage, and more generally on Wedge Live, it definitely includes editorializing. It's not just an attempt to be neutral or ⁓ objective when local politics and elected officials. So I'm curious to hear how you think about that question of journalistic objectivity in the work that you do.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I think having just gotten started how I did tweeting, my opinions mixed in with things, I ⁓ just don't have you know, it's not I'm someone who went to journalistic journal school and like knows to like keep objective, like someone from the Star Tribune always brags that he votes a blank ballot. for me, ⁓ I mix in opinion. But I don't ever like make stuff up. So that's where I kind of feel like, I'm just, putting information out and if people don't want opinions with it, they can ⁓ get information elsewhere. I don't really feel the need to be neutral in any sense. Especially when ⁓ we have something ⁓ the Minneapolis Times existing right now, which is this really like. centrist DFL kind of reactionary blog that has a very outsized influence. former governor, think Arne Carlson's involved now, like David Schultz. And so, ⁓ you know, South Side just ceased publication. That was kind of a lefty physical thing. So I think We need all the progressive alternatives to, and when so much of our corporate media is so centrist DFL, I think we need as many progressive alternatives to that stuff in there, even as small potatoes as they are.
Brad Sigal: And even, I would say even more so now with Trump and his billionaire buddies buying up all of the national media outlets and social media platforms. Yeah. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on ⁓ that. we've been talking about a lot of things so far, but not a lot about photography. And this is ⁓ ostensibly a podcast. So I'd love to talk a little bit about your photography because you often ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yes.
Brad Sigal: are out camera in hand when you're doing your work. How long have you been doing photography?
Taylor Dahlin: God, got into it when I was a teenager, more than, I don't know, 25, 30 years or something, I don't know. No, how old am I? I don't know. I only went to school in that I went to Perpich Center for Arts Education, which is the arts high school. I went there for media, so I went there for like my...
Brad Sigal: Yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: junior and senior year and you just kind of get like a very basic ⁓ education terms of, but we did do like, you know, so you do like some ⁓ 16 film, some black and white, like photography and dark room development. and then some digital. So you do a whole bunch, ⁓ but that's basically it. And then I've ⁓ maintained photography for like whatever I'm into at the time. Like I into ⁓ music photography a lot in like, the early, to 2000s traveled a lot, used to see bands a lot, did a lot of photography that way. And then ⁓ kind of doing photography around like urban exploring for a while too. but you know, there's always been an element of like, like I photographed in my high school, we did the walkout for the Iraq war. And then I went to the protest downtown. so I photographed that and like, the RNC protests in 2008. So there's always been like an element of covering these things. And then finally bought another camera again, like last summer and really got back into it since then.
Brad Sigal: Okay. So I wanna follow up on at least three or all of the things you just talked about. So music photography, one of the earlier episodes I did was about concert photography. I'd love to hear just like what kind of bands were you and venues were you doing photographs at?
Taylor Dahlin: I did ⁓ website for this band called The Posies and then I kind of followed them around the US and then several countries in Europe as well. So they would be ⁓ smaller really tight. mean, like I've been like, I really loved in Minneapolis, I loved like the 400 bar, which isn't around anymore, ⁓ but were like one of my favorites or like. ⁓ the triple, what is it in Chicago? The double door in Chicago or like venues of like first, not even first Avenue size, like smaller, but then like in Europe. Yeah.
Brad Sigal: Like below the first Avenue Industrial Complex kind of places, more bars and little clubs.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so then I just did that like all around and then some other ones in Europe that were like even smaller.
Brad Sigal: Do you have your music ⁓ photography available anywhere? That's usually the last question, where can people see your work? But yeah, I'm curious.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah! Yeah, I have an Instagram, which I don't have a lot of stuff up, but I've had the same ⁓ Flickr account for like 21 years now. So yeah, it's still great for sharing photos, and I've continually put that up. So I do have a lot of my old, like I say old, like, yeah, the music photography like 20 years ago was there. It's just a really silly, like I had to pick, you have to pick like your permanent username. And at one point I just kind of like was putting, it's like,
Brad Sigal: Same,
Taylor Dahlin: I was just picking words on a keyboard, so it's like C-A-B-B, like cab with two B's. It doesn't even mean anything and I can't change it, so I'm just like stuck with it. Yeah.
Brad Sigal: For the rest of your life, ⁓ no. And you can't change it. Like on some of the platforms you can change it after a while, but no.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, they probably warned me. just didn't... I didn't care.
Brad Sigal: Yeah. And then the second thing you mentioned was urban exploration. ⁓ you talk more about that?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, so I got into going into abandoned buildings and like photographing and that was mostly because I would photograph graffiti in Minneapolis and then so was natural you'd want to go into those. And so I did a bunch of places that are not around now ⁓ or been demolished or turned into but like abandoned or water bottle plants. or like industrial spots. Yeah, ⁓ a lot. There's one that's really cool that it was an old water bottling plant and there's new owners now who bought it for the specific purpose of like keeping all the graffiti and stuff. So I'm excited to see what they do with it, yeah.
Brad Sigal: ⁓ really? there's just so many cool places, ⁓ This I think may not able to get to it anymore. What is it, the old munitions factory out like in, is it Arden Hills or something like that? And then there's like on the east side of St. Paul, the breweries over there, the, hams, the old buildings, those are, I don't think you can get into those anymore, but.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah! Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God, Ham's is now like redeveloped and like they turned it into like a working brewery. I have not even been. I'm just like, that's so weird. Cause I, yeah.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, there is a lot of cool stuff. mean, there's the caves over on the West side too in St. Paul that people have died in there. don't know. ⁓ But there's ⁓ places you can get that are safer. And so you also mentioned some protest photography around the Iraq War, maybe the second Iraq War or third, hard to keep ⁓ these days.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I used to do that. Bye! You be careful. Yeah. ⁓ yeah.
Brad Sigal: And then the RNC, the Republican National Convention, when it was in St. Paul in 2008. I would love to hear more, maybe specifically about the RNC 2008, because I was out there every day as well, and especially on the fourth day when there was, at that point, the largest mass arrest in Twin Cities history. get curious if we were out there on that day where there was tear gas and all that stuff.
Taylor Dahlin: I ⁓ no, I missed that day because I had friends that were too. knew people who were involved with, what was that, Citizen Journalism outlet, The Uptake, who were there like a lot, like live streaming. But no, I missed that day. Like I was looking back at my photos, I don't really remember even being there much. it's so weird because I looked at my photos and I was just like, wow, look at all those cops. that. ⁓ think that was just my life. ⁓
Brad Sigal: Right. You
Taylor Dahlin: was my first encounter of that hyper militarization of the police that I didn't even register.
Brad Sigal: Well, it's interesting because as who's participated in a lot of protest movements over the years, like the first protest I went to at a political convention was ⁓ in the democratic convention in Atlanta, And there was no militarized police, people just sort of walk up to outside the and ⁓ with a megaphone and start yelling stuff, know. ⁓ But really the post-9-11 atmosphere where these were declared national security events, that's where you started to really see. So 2004, the RNC in New York City, where they wouldn't even permit protests at all. so the big mass protest had to go with no permit and they were not allowed to have a stage. It was just marching to nothing. And then of course, 2008 Republican convention in St. Paul was the one that was here, but it was the first
Taylor Dahlin: Let's go.
Brad Sigal: up close thing that we got to see in the Twin Cities of one of these national security events where were you there maybe on the second day when Rage Against the Machine was supposed to play? There was a concert and Front of the Capitol and a whole bunch of bands and the last one was going to be Rage Against the Machine and ⁓ the police cut sound right before they were able to play and then Zach and Tom Morello came out into the crowd with a megaphone and just did like a ⁓ a cappella couple songs and then led people to march down to the Excel Center. was...
Taylor Dahlin: No. I was there with some, I remember there was a march that day, but I don't remember, there was no concert. So maybe they just did marches every day. not sure. Okay, there was a big ice sculpture that day, I remember still. Maybe it melted, I don't know.
Brad Sigal: Okay. There was stuff every day for sure, yeah. ⁓ okay. I don't remember that, but yeah, there was a lot going on. And of course, different groups organizing different things. Like there were the anarchists who did the, ⁓ what was it called? Welcoming or unwelcoming the Republican convention and blocking streets. And then the big mass march on the first day I was at that anyway, there was some coverage of the day four ⁓ thing I mentioned where the anti-war committee organized a march on the fourth day.
Taylor Dahlin: Right. Yes. ⁓ yeah.
Brad Sigal: as right basically as it was starting when the Republican nominee was going to officially be nominated. And basically it ended up being dispersed with tear gas and horses. ⁓ there's video I saw on YouTube where you see me sort of running past ⁓ in midst of all these people running away from the tear gas. yeah, and
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ my God.
Brad Sigal: I was not there in my photographer capacity at that time, so I don't have great pictures from that. wish I did. Anyway, sorry, starting sort of going down memory lane rather than focusing on podcast questions. so with protest photography, was that something you did more ongoing or was it just when there was those sort of big events like the Gulf War protests or the RNC 2008?
Taylor Dahlin: Mm, yeah. No! ⁓ going because one of my friends was pretty involved in like the Occupy Homes movement in like 2011. So I would go to him with some to some events. And then I think that was really the last bigger ones up until like 2020 when George Floyd was killed and then since then just more involved.
Brad Sigal: Were you out with your camera or documenting during the George Floyd protests?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, yeah, I hadn't gotten a new camera back then. I still had like an old DSLR that I was just not using at all. But I remember I was out at the third precinct on like the 28th before it burned in Target that weekend before they had secured it again. And you know, you're like, it's like under a foot of water. And I just remember walking in, I was like, wow, this is wild. Like the sprinklers are going off. People are like spray painting all over the merches there. Like yeah, I was.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, I went in the Target as well with the water and I got some incredible pictures in there and the Cub as well. ⁓ got to go up on the roof of the Cub too. Someone showed me how to get up there to get some pictures from up there. That was kind of wild.
Taylor Dahlin: Yes! Mm-hmm. Ooh, that's cool.
Brad Sigal: Okay, so you were out documenting during that time as well. And then there, of course, was a wave of protests that lasted months and even a couple years after that through the trial and then through ⁓ Wright and other things. That's one project that I'm working on that...
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ yeah. Yep.
Brad Sigal: I haven't completed is a photography book with photos and interviews with a bunch of people basically the George Floyd uprising to the two years after that. So ⁓ anyone listening, for my book to someday come out. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Hmm ⁓ good, yeah, that's necessary.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, so. ⁓ Getting back to, photography and journalism. ⁓ I would you an independent journalist. ⁓ You're associated with outlet that is, for better or worse, not universally loved by local elected officials and government employees. Have you had issues with getting access or being ⁓ not treated as a journalist by people who may not love ⁓ your work or the work Wedge Live?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I mean, we got like taken to like campaign finance court last year with some woman who was running for city council who my gosh, she thought we made this like fake website about her, which we didn't we didn't even make the website, but she accused us of making it and then we were like, well, no, maybe we know who made it, but we would have learned that as journalists. and then she kind of disputed that ⁓ and ⁓ it a whole deal, which it ended getting resolved where that they didn't even touch the meat of that issue. But yeah, I think they acknowledge, ⁓ a lot of places will acknowledge Wedge Live as press now. ⁓ It's like they don't. like us. Like we had RSVP the other day, John and I did to this like downtown council event that was like downtown conversations with the council members and we just RSVP'd and then they had to email us and be like, or it was like the CEO and he's like, it's not open to the press. Sorry. It's like But yeah, you know, then there's plenty of other people that just put us on their press release list. So I'm just like, I don't care if so-and-so won't acknowledge us as press. ⁓
Brad Sigal: do you have a sense of like the reach and the audience that your work has in comparison maybe with some of the local, legacy news outlets?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I think it's smaller. like it's interesting. one thing I've found is that there's still just a better reach for stories that you put out ⁓ on ⁓ Twitter in terms of getting ⁓ media pay attention in terms of versus like somewhere like Blue Sky, which I know a lot of people have left Twitter for obvious reasons, but. a lot of legacy media just has not moved over to Blue Sky and are not paying attention to what happens there as much. because a lot of what I do is I'll just put things out in hopes of getting it picked up by a bigger stories to get, ⁓ who can actually push people on things or because I don't have whatever. And yeah, ⁓ I've found that I a smaller and there's things ⁓ I'm not interested in. Like I don't video stuff. Like I don't make video content or I'm not interested in reaching that kind of stuff. So I know that I have a smaller reach. Like sometimes if I put something out on Instagram, I'll be like, wow, this reach is like a whole different people that I just never encounter on Blue Sky or Twitter. Because to some extent, that's just kind of, they're kind of like nerdy sites. You know what I mean? They're still in a world of like. where video is everything, you know, it's text, but I like that, so.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, we're in the day and age when you have to become a video content creator no matter what you do almost. I'm glad you're still resisting it. But yeah, I suppose with Wedge Live Podcast, that's video as well. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah. That's true, but yeah, it's a long form video.
Brad Sigal: Yeah. So one more question on ⁓ what of do you usually carry with you and use when you're doing your photography work?
Taylor Dahlin: I just have a, a Canon D, hold on, let me see it, Canon D something, D6 maybe? I don't know. And then I keep going back to the, it's a, I used it a lot back when I would photograph bands and stuff, but this prime like 50 millimeter, like F-stop, 1.4 lens, I just love what that does. Like I have all these other lenses, but there's something about that one. Like I had my first DSLR was a Pentax, which I don't even know if they make cameras anymore, but I had that same lens for that. And when I switched over last year to Canon, I was just like, I have to buy that exact same one. and it's kind of a pain. ⁓
Brad Sigal: Hmm.
Taylor Dahlin: Cause I do have, like Zoom ones and like those are so much more convenient, but it's just so nice.
Brad Sigal: That's why they call it the Nifty 50, I guess. It's kind of the perfect lens in a lot of ways. And especially with the aperture going down to 1.8 or 1.4, you can really do some amazing stuff with it. So we've...
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ do that. Let's see. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Brad Sigal: Gone through some stories of your experiences doing the work that you do. Beyond what we've talked about already, or maybe even including those, what are some of your most memorable moments in covering Minneapolis politics in recent years?
Taylor Dahlin: Um, a fun, I really, I still like the whole, Mickey Moore story. This guy tried to run against Jason Chavez the first time he ran and he didn't live in Ward 9. He lived like, not even close. I mean, like up in Oak Grove somewhere, which is like, no, like, like Anoka County, I think. And so it was just this very ridiculous character who would not admit that he did and he-
Brad Sigal: Like not even in the city of Minneapolis in a suburb. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: finally, I think, and then the Star Tribune endorsed him. this was after we'd just been saying for months, like, he doesn't live here, he doesn't live here. And then the Star Tribune had to like admit that they had to pull their endorsement. And obviously he lost, but that was still just one of my favorites because he was just the most ridiculous character. And then there's just ridiculous...
Brad Sigal: That's right. And you guys really helped break that story too, right?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, well, we were the ones who discovered it. Yeah, because his ⁓ manager started like weird on Twitter and that's how we like dug into it. and his wife was like posting just pictures of their mail on Facebook. And it was like, there's your address, you know, so it wasn't even like hiding it and just a ridiculous character. And he still pops up and it's just like, dude, you, but yeah. And he was the reason that, I think the following year, like Jason Chavez just refused to even screen with the Star Tribune. Cause he's just like, you endorsed this clown and you know, and then eventually it led to, one year the council members all refused to screen and then Star Tribune just stopped doing endorsements entirely. So that was all just very funny. And other, oh yeah.
Brad Sigal: I think that, ⁓ sorry, I'm just gonna say, editorialize on that a little bit, which is that to me it is a statement too on not to just bash the Star Tribune or traditional media outlets, but really the decimation of their newsrooms over the last, I don't know how many decades, where don't have the people, the reporters, to just put people on stories like this and ⁓ up and discover these kinds of things, and it's up to ⁓ random people to notice something Facebook and look into it and then some friends look into it and then it sounds like you had to push for months before the start you would even ⁓ look at it to verify It just says something about the ⁓ media environment that we're in, think.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah. Yeah, they never did. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, it's... Yeah, it's, mean, and then there's just like other incidents, like, I remember trying to see a Don Samuel's press conference and got turned away at the door. Like that's kind of like it happened to John Edwards once too. He got turned away at like an Osbury Warsome press conference. So that's like ⁓ the same, just... ⁓
Brad Sigal: So yeah, more stories, more stories.
Taylor Dahlin: the centrist candidates like just don't want us there. And it's like, okay, fine. it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, there's so much ⁓ going on that I still am watching terms of the city of like people are not sure what ⁓ we're going to expect from mayor in the next four years. Like there was, I remember when he won, people last year were like, okay, we're either going to get ⁓ the worst lame duck mayor ever or who's concerned about legacy building. And it's seeming like some ⁓ strange like combination right now, just the way he's seeking a praise from ⁓ national media.
Brad Sigal: And there's a lot of speculation already of his next political move because he clearly seems to be someone with higher ambitions. So yeah, What about going back to maybe where we were a little earlier talking about over the last few months, are there any moments or events or things that really stood out to you? Like I'm curious, maybe because it's closer to where you usually are covering things in Whittier, like where Alex Pretti was killed. I don't know, what are your thoughts? ⁓ imagine you've probably been by the memorial there
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, that one, that one was, that one like, I think hit home closer to me than like, Renee Good's killing did. I don't get over to that area of the South Side very much. And I spend a lot of time in Whittier. Like I, you know, it's just a bus ride away from ⁓ me where, and there's many restaurants there I've gone for years. And so that one was like really shocking on that level of like, that I kind of get, you know, what it feels like. Cause like, again, the George Floyd killing that was also a part of Southside that I just like, I don't go there very much. And so, but the winter year one really felt like, wow, I walk here all the time. So it was, it's a, a very, I still go there like a fair amount. And it, know, it also was on a personal level as like someone who ⁓ beat cancer, just seeing this happened to a medical is just like, holy shit, like this is evil. So like, that's why ⁓ this one is more. personal than all the others to me. So yeah, I've been there a bunch and it's still like, I was just there for the, I don't remember who put it on, if it was like the Whittier Alliance, but the festival that Dropkick Murphy's played. every time I'm there, yeah, it's just a really touching experience. And I'm very curious to see what they end up doing for the permanent memorials, both there and at Renee's site too, because it's like, I know the city, could tell after both these killings happened that the city did not want to repeat George Floyd Square. They didn't want people blocking traffic, they didn't want you doing anything, and they're still very, you can tell they're sensitive about keeping traffic flowing. so it's gonna come up to a head at some point, both of these. so I hope that they can do the right thing and preserve some form of memorial.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, and I think with Renee Goods, mean, that's a residential block. that has a different character ⁓ in my both George Floyd Square, ⁓ which is mix of residential and commercial, and ⁓ where Alex was killed, which is like a ⁓ major commercial that, like you said, everyone goes to restaurants at 26th and Nicollet area all the time. It's ⁓ just a destination ⁓ and also very dense neighborhood with ⁓ thousands of that live right there. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Mm-hmm.
Brad Sigal: So I agree, I hope they can figure out a way to preserve that. So for a beginner photographer, independent journalist, someone interested in doing something similar to what you do, like independent local or hyper local journalism, what advice would you have for them about where to start and what to do to build an audience?
Taylor Dahlin: just like going and covering like, especially your neighborhood meetings or like things that are happening in your neighborhood and what you see around you and what you know is especially helpful. Like people always ask, especially they'll be like, well, what's the wedge live of like St. Paul? And it's like, well, there, there isn't one. ⁓ so many of the city could benefit from something like this. cause you know, everywhere has like maybe a community paper or something, but that doesn't necessarily translate to online. and you know, some people like like just the most basic stuff, like just write about like what your council member is doing or like what you see in your neighborhood, And you'll just start wondering how does this function? And so that was how was for me. was I'd be like, well, why isn't the sidewalk shoveled? How does that work? And so I'd try to learn, well, when you report it, what happens at the city? like anyone can get into this. It's just a matter of you just kind of start by just doing it and ⁓ people will get into it. And just have to be kind of ⁓ curious and willing to self sustain your interest in things even when they're kind of boring because like You know when you're getting down to like the basics of covering like, ⁓ design your areas or like what's this little thing? But like there's there's just such an audience for that I think especially like in areas of the city that it doesn't exist so just like Go to your neighborhood things, just write about it, like what you see, take pictures of what you notice, and just post your thoughts on things and try to learn about, you know, how things work.
Brad Sigal: I think that's such good advice. for pure photography and for documentary and type journalism as well. Cause for photography, so many people think, and a lot of times people first get their, get a real quote unquote camera, cause they're going on a vacation on a trip somewhere like, I'm going to Paris. I need to get a camera ⁓ or I'm to Hawaii. I need to get a camera, ⁓ but don't about that where they live is someone else's vacation destination, you know, and there's so much interesting stuff going on in your neighborhood and you're the one who actually knows about it. ⁓ It makes think about,
Taylor Dahlin: Mm-hmm.
Brad Sigal: another maybe anecdote, I don't know if you'll want to add anything to it, but I think it wasn't at Wedge Live that sort of made Lake Chipotle into a thing, right? Where the Chipotle on, was it Hennepin around 26th or so, ⁓ just the driveway, because it was poorly designed and degraded, would just become a huge lake every time it rained. And so they're always posting pictures from Lake Chipotle every time it rained until they finally fixed it, you know? ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ yes, yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, or like there's, you know, there's another guy who lives in South Minneapolis and he became really fixated on the Burger King, the abandoned Burger King. And he wanted it torn down and he wanted it built. And this was just like his pet issue. And he like narrow focused on it. you can accomplish a surprising amount if you just get into these like tiny little hyperlocal issues like that. Like you can have an outsized impact if you just put in the effort ⁓ for something as silly as like, yeah, like like the Lake Chipotle or like the Burger King that makes you angry, you know?
Brad Sigal: also think about like the, the sinkhole and Gerard, just off of Hennepin that happened and. In the Twin Cities, we know a lot about potholes, right? At the end of every winter, streets just become pothole nightmares, but that became like a massive sinkhole. You know, there's things like that that are actually quite interesting and do lead you into a whole thing, even just photographically, like, ⁓ that's interesting, a huge sinkhole in the middle of an urban area, but also...
Taylor Dahlin: you
Brad Sigal: gets into some of what I think you were just talking about where you're like, well, who's responsible for fixing this? Okay, public works department, which part of public works department, who's in charge of that? ⁓ why won't my council member, why can't my council member help me with responsiveness to public works? ⁓ because they restructured the government and now they only respond to the mayor. Well, why is that? And who's behind that? And you suddenly learn all this stuff and you know more than probably 90 % of your neighbors and you can help them understand it as well.
Taylor Dahlin: Yes. Yep. Yes.
Brad Sigal: So one other question that, you know, when people are getting into photography and starting to get more serious about it, it is an expensive hobby. Cameras are expensive. Lenses are even more expensive and other gear is very expensive. So people start thinking, is there a way I can like make money doing this to at least offset the costs of doing it, if not potentially make a living? Is... ⁓ the sort of hyper-local journalism and photojournalism that you do, is this something that you can make a living off of or that you think there's a way that someone who would want to could make a living off of it? Or is it just a passion, a hobby?
Taylor Dahlin: If you, I think you could maybe not, maybe not make a living, but like supplement. I think if you could get into freelance, photography and maybe getting contracted to do ⁓ jobs on a by case basis. But yeah, I don't know if you really could make a full living.
Brad Sigal: Have you ever had mainstream ⁓ media outlets come you and ask if can use your things or Wedge? ⁓ I imagine that might maybe has happened with Live when you get coverage of something and others want to use it. You know, that's maybe one way. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I have some like I'll have it happens more often ⁓ on Twitter with like video clips, especially that happens during like, like I have some ⁓ broadcaster ⁓ that ⁓ let use a bunch. And then also I was at ⁓ the Lake in Bloomington federal raid last June. So I had several content that people bought videos from that too. but overall I honestly put a lot of my stuff on Flickr as Creative Commons. Just because I kind of just I just want to get it out there. It's funny, I do that with a lot of, especially with my like local politics stuff. And then a lot of the Minneapolis electeds now, their Wikipedia pictures are like people take them from stuff I put on Flickr. So like, I'll know that if I'm like taking a picture of local elected. I'm like, ⁓ there's a chance this will wind up on their Wikipedia page.
Brad Sigal: That's interesting, I've maintained my page on Flickr for forever, ⁓ but I haven't added to it in a long time. it is true, like some of my band photos from in the day, like those pictures on Flickr still get ⁓ picked up and people contact me to use them. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah.
Brad Sigal: So I should do that with some of my pictures of politicians speaking at press conferences and stuff. Yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: You should. There's a big audience for that there.
Brad Sigal: It seems like Flickr is making a comeback. Have you heard about this big event they're doing in Minneapolis coming up?
Taylor Dahlin: It's a yeah, kept I remember seeing it like like they were hinting at like mode and I was just like what in what in the AI is this and then it ends up being a festival which is a little better but then I looked at it and it's like $350. It's a to it. It's a very like chicken fry coated event like it reminds me of when he likes was boosting when we had V con here the Gary Vaynerchuk like I don't know those crypto or
Brad Sigal: Yeah. Exactly. didn't realize that well, yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: what it actually was. Some weird tech festival here years ago. But I was just like, yeah, that's kind of...
Brad Sigal: I know some of these National Photography Conferences can be like that, a lot of money, but yeah, I think I share your view on that probably. So is there anything else you'd want to touch on that we haven't talked about in terms of your experiences or thoughts on photography and local journalism?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, like 350. No, no, I know. I will say I think we're really lucky to have a lot of really good like, you know, photographers here doing photojournalism and just like movement photography and like covering like so much work, really good stuff coming out of here.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, it's been very notable during the George Floyd period and now as well how many people come out of the woodwork, both in terms of national media descending for a few days or a week or whatever, but then also just local photographers who don't normally do protests or show up to these kinds of things, but do other things who are out as well. And some of them then stick around and keep coming to stuff. ⁓ is, it's good.
Taylor Dahlin: Thanks
Brad Sigal: Well, why don't you ⁓ wrap up then with letting people know where they can find you if they want to follow your journalistic work, your photography work.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I have a blog which I mostly did for like covering campaign stuff last year, but it's ⁓ TaylorDollin.com. So my name Taylor and then T-A-Y-L-O-R-D as in dog, A-A-H-L-I-N as in Nancy.com. And then it's the same on Blue Sky, TaylorDollin.com. is also just TaylorDollin and then Twitter I'm ⁓ there. If anyone's still using
Brad Sigal: That's what always think of you. Maybe I must have seen you on Twitter first, because yeah, I always think of you without the O-T-A-Y-L-R. Taylor. Okay. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk about the work that you're doing. You're kind of an ever present.
Taylor Dahlin: It's my flicker name.
Brad Sigal: person in the Twin Cities and Minneapolis scene when there's a press conference or a, council meeting or political convention ⁓ people always know they follow you and find out what's going on. So I really appreciate your work and thank you for taking the time to talk about some of what you do. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Thank you. Yeah, thank you. ⁓
Brad Sigal: You know, for anyone who's listened this long, please and subscribe and push all the buttons you're supposed to push to support, get picture so that we can keep bringing you great content this talking to cool people in the Twin Cities and elsewhere about photography and about related types of things like photojournalism and ⁓ independent local journalism.
Taylor Dahlin: Thank you.
Taylor Dahlin: Thank you for having me.
Brad Sigal: Why don't we get started just with a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I guess mostly focus on covering like hyperlocal Minneapolis politics. I have for maybe the last decade, but gotten more serious in the last five or so years doing those things and just so politics mostly, but also just various like social issues that are popping up and protests and things like that. So I mostly stick to like writing about things on either Twitter or Blue Sky, but I do sometimes post and videos ⁓ Instagram too.
Brad Sigal: And can we, let's just maybe get into a little more detail when you talk about local or hyper local and photography. what does that mean? what are you covering?
Taylor Dahlin: kind of focus a lot on just like my neighborhood. I live in Loring Park. I've lived here for over years now. So very familiar with kind of the ins and outs of things. And so I just kind of cover the politics of the area and kind of like the trends like notice, you know, like how things are acting and then how politics affects that. So hyperlocal and then also just like of Minneapolis government stuff, but that means basically when it comes to something like state politics or even national politics, don't know anything. I really only know city at the highest level.
Brad Sigal: So like, a kid, you sitting in front of the watching C-SPAN? Have you always been someone who'd like to sit through ⁓ and live tweet through 12 hour party nominating conventions or like excruciatingly long and tedious city council meetings why did you start doing that?
Taylor Dahlin: was always kind of into politics as a kid to some extent. I would like read the newspaper every day growing up just to know things. I had like a kind of embarrassing crush on like Norm Coleman when he was the mayor of St. Paul when I was a kid. Like he was a... Yeah, when I, you know, even when he was Republican, I didn't care. ⁓ so just always been into politics. And like, whenever I went to the state fair, was, I would always get excited to meet the politicians. So... ⁓
Brad Sigal: Before he went Republican, maybe. Yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: there's always been that interest. And then, yeah, as I kind of got back into it when I moved to Loring Park.
Brad Sigal: that's one aspect of the things that at least I noticed most about what you do is covering those kinds of, whether it's city council meetings or different boards and commissions or ⁓ One other thing that you do, and this maybe gets a little more at the photography side of things, is you'll just post pictures of houses and buildings and stuff, stickers and graffiti on the streets around neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Is that something you've always done or how does that fit into what you try to do?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, it is. I look back when I was in high school, so like, the early, digital camera when we had like one megapixel, two megapixel digital cameras, but in high school, I would carry one around all day. And so when I look back and like these, my high school photo albums that I have digitally, it would be like one day and I have just like 30 photos of my friends and like all these various things. So. ⁓
Brad Sigal: You
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, and so I can go back like 20 years into my photos and there's like the same types of photos I take now but of like downtown and I can see like what kind of graffiti and stickers were doing and like what buildings were like back then. So yeah, I've always had an interest in kind of just like documenting what I'm seeing around me.
Brad Sigal: And that's something that I think both has a value in the here and now where. Not everybody, maybe partly because of our atomized society where everyone stays inside and is on their computer rather than walking around as much as ⁓ used to happen. But it's kind of cool just to see what's happening around a neighborhood. And in addition to being valuable now, I think there's also a longer term value as neighborhoods change. You can look back like you're talking about now when you were in high school or whatever and see like, whoa, that used to be this other store or this other building. Yeah. Sorry, that wasn't exactly a question, but.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, that's... No, I mean, that's exactly it. it's things that like photos that you maybe at the time you think are just like kind of a nothing photo, but then 20 years or 10 years past, you look back and you're like, ⁓ that's actually a valuable little detail that I ⁓ would forgotten about or this little character aspect to a neighborhood. So it's like why now I try to take photos that I think are just like... Like why would I want a photo of this random intersection? right now it has no value, but maybe in 10 years I'll want to know what it looked like. So that's why I do a lot of that.
Brad Sigal: And so you said you've been doing this kind of work for around 10 years, think, or did you say 10 or 15? When did you realize or decide that going to a lot of local events and activities and walking around documenting things of interest to you in the neighborhood was actually like a thing, quote unquote, in this new media landscape that was something more than just a thing you do for fun?
Taylor Dahlin: I don't remember how I found him, but I started following Wedge Live on Twitter in probably maybe 2014, I think I first discovered John Edwards' account and then I didn't understand any of it because a lot of it is like that he would post are just these really like you have to, they're kind of like inside jokes or like levels of insight it has to be an element of understanding. So I found it and I remember just being like. I don't understand any of this, but it's funny. I get that it's funny. So I want to understand it. And so then that's really how I got into Minneapolis politics was wanting to get John's jokes. So that really was my gateway. so the first mayoral election I really paid attention to was 2017, which is I think when Frey was elected. And so then ever since it's just kind of snowballed where I just get more and more.
Brad Sigal: You Hahaha.
Taylor Dahlin: involved every kind of every year, every election cycle, which helped because we've had like seven since then.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, so you've mentioned Wedge Live now. I'd like to get a little more into that. you mentioned before that you published some on Blue Sky and Twitter in terms of your writings, photos, video. But also there's Wedge Live. You know, it's kind of an enigma in Minneapolis politics in a way. Like, in my opinion, it's... really the must listen podcast and must follow social media for anyone trying like you were trying to do trying to understand local Minneapolis politics. can you tell a little bit more about ⁓ what Live is?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, it's pretty much, John Edwards. It's one guy who lives in the wedge and just, moved here from Florida and he started going to a lot of neighborhood meetings and started tweeting what was happening at the neighborhood meetings and then city council meetings. and then maybe I think almost exactly five years ago, he started a podcast, which was kind of a joke by Jason Garcia to be like, if you get this many subscribers to your Patreon, we'll get you to start a podcast. ⁓ So how the podcast came about. And it's turned into this really, really valuable resource, especially think every year for elections, because pretty much ⁓ most candidates will go it. last year, of course, the Centrist City Council candidates will not. ⁓ make the appearance, but other than that, it's a really balanced.
Brad Sigal: He did get Linnea Palasano to do a bike ride with him, I remember, at one point, yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: That's true, but it's like the new, all of Minneapolis ones, they won't go on it. a, ⁓ I ⁓ think it gets people to open up a too especially when he does the bike ride style or any activity-based interviews, think activity gets people's brains moving differently.
Brad Sigal: So you mentioned that it's called Wedge Live and you mentioned that John Edwards started it, he lives in the wedge. you talk a little bit about the wedge? It is kind of a, I don't want to say unique, but it's one of the most interesting neighborhoods I think in Minneapolis.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, it is. It's like this area between Lyndale and Hennepin ⁓ and north of I think Lake Street and then south of not Franklin but that little area north of Franklin too. So it's this like wedge shape. So it's technically Lowry Hill East is the name but it's a very dense area and a of urbanist types who are really into like cycling and issues of upzoning, ⁓ transit. It's a very politically active creative neighborhood too in a way. Like there's a really cute outfit there called like street wheat. This guy just like sells baked goods off his porch now. ⁓ And then, you just they have the cat tour that John brings there. So it's just, there's a lot going on there.
Brad Sigal: when I think about Minneapolis and St. Paul, for that matter, they're both cities like if you compare to cities like in Latin America or in Europe that have a center and there's a culture of walking and hanging out and ⁓ Minneapolis and Paul, neither of them really have a center in that way. The wedge is one of those few neighborhoods where it is more dense and walkable. And there is sort of more of a ⁓ culture there's shops, there's, music venues, et cetera. and there are a lot of very politically engaged people there. So, I it makes sense in a sense that the wedge would give birth to something like wedge live. and the neighborhood where you cover and live is ⁓ adjacent to that, right? or very close to it.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, we're, yeah, just north of it on one area. And then there's also like one area we also have Stephen Square in between. But yeah, Loring, Loring's changed a lot. When I moved here, used to be kind of the neighborhood where the young professionals and like target workers lived. And there was a lot of like, more bars. And now that area is the North Loop. So we still have a really There's an interesting class division in Loring that I've found there's the condo owners who are wealthy and there's some very wealthy condo owners and then we also have just a lot of overall like ⁓ younger queer ⁓ POC renters a lot and you know with this current ICE invasion we really get to see that class divide in action. It's been very interesting.
Brad Sigal: And I'm really excited to get into the ICE invasion and occupation. it ⁓ also, when you were saying that, it reminded me as well, like the last Ward 7 City Council race, I think also really highlighted that class division. why don't we do that now, talk about Operation Metro Surge. You, as you've talked about, are someone who follows the intricate details of Minneapolis politics all the time for many years. You know probably more about the mayor, city council members, the police chief and precincts and city department directors, city budget details than any normal person would ever want to know. And now suddenly the eyes of the world are on Minneapolis with Trump's vilification of the Somali community and then the subsequent surge of
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah.
Brad Sigal: more than 3,000 heavily militarized and massed immigration enforcement officers tearing apart families, traumatizing the whole city, killing two ICE observers, Rene Good and Alex Preti on streets that you walk on and talk about ⁓ almost every day. And the midst of that, ⁓ an ⁓ level and sophistication in a lot of ways of resistance to all of that. So I'm really curious, that's sort of a long way to lead into a question as somebody who's followed Minneapolis politics so closely for so long. let's start with what your experience was of the intense activity in Minneapolis over the past few months.
Taylor Dahlin: was really almost to me because I, ⁓ the, it's kind of off in a way with the whole Nick Shirley video ⁓ and ⁓ the one that that is the viral one, the quality leering center, the misspelling that's at a cafe that's like right in my neighborhood, like Albie Kitchen's in Loring Park. that's, that just brought an element of like ⁓ weirdness to this whole of like, and we, know, even before the video came out, there was a report. among neighbors like, this guy's lurking around. ⁓ I kind of had a preview that was happening. It was all when when it the whole invasion though kicked off, I was in a really weird space because I had I had surgery January 13. it was a minor surgery, but I was not recovered. was staying in like south, not southwest, south. I don't know, Ward 12. I don't know what area of the city they would call that, maybe Southeast, to recover for a few weeks. So I wasn't in my own neighborhood, and I was still being really plugged into everything though, still involved as much as I could be from afar. But it was just a really bad timing to be staying outside of where you live and still trying to know what's going on where you live. Because the area where I was staying had... no activity, was just a quiet, sleepy little street. and then when I finally came home and was able to get more plugged in, had, like within days of me coming home, we had Greg Bovino come right by the daycare with his little convoy for a photo op. So it's just been nonstop crap like that.
Brad Sigal: So these are that are right in your neighborhood, things that you know so well, ⁓ better than probably people in the city. And then suddenly you have ⁓ local media paying closer national media, international media. ⁓ What's your assessment of the media did in covering both the occupation and the resistance? both the resistance from everyday just sort of standing watch at schools, things like that, from activist organizations that usually organized protests of 100 people, suddenly organizing protests of tens or even 100,000 people. And from small businesses that we walk by every day that became hubs of solidarity, whether it's Smitten Kitten or Pow Wow Grounds, what's your assessment of how the media did and what did you focus on in your coverage?
Taylor Dahlin: I think overall, I ⁓ got with a lot of the national coverage or the sheer amount of national journalists we had here. ⁓ But overall they did pretty good. I don't even know if there's any specifics locally I can think of, but I just remember feeling like some of the local coverage was maybe ⁓ too... ⁓ believing of the image Frey was trying to sell at the time, like that he was this hero that he was doing more than he actually was. I don't blame the national journalists for falling for that narrative that he's setting, but I feel like some of the local coverage just should have had more, I don't know, more context or more just like, like it wasn't until Robin Wonsley spoke at a press conference a few days ago and she, mentioned that like he never did ice patrol. He never did like school watch and you know he's a parent that's like an easy photo op even just put on a reflective vest stand on a corner with a whistle and so to not even meet that kind of bare minimum of like ⁓ don't know I just ⁓ wasn't the media ⁓ that of him where was he to do these things so I think ⁓ overall though a lot of the that was locally was really good like I really I loved what ⁓ John Collins at NPR was doing really great stuff. Sahan Journal as usual. Racket did really good stuff in terms of covering what restaurants and the food scene we're doing, ⁓ which a really cool angle. Yeah, ⁓ I all... ⁓ Yeah.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, things like rectangle pizza raising how much, you know, I don't even remember how much money and, know, Lido's burritos and just so many places doing so much.
Taylor Dahlin: Yep. Well, and that kind of coverage is necessary because like so many institutions were asleep on the job and it was up to the community to step up. ⁓
Brad Sigal: So you talked about already, I was gonna ask, but you already went there with Mayor Frey. So he got another one of his moments in the national media spotlight out of all of this. Well, as you mentioned, at least as far as you or I know, he didn't do any of those patrols or anything like that. He generally makes sure anything he does is very well documented and covered. So I assume we would know if he did, ⁓ but maybe not. ⁓ But. We do know that a number of city council members their staff were out in the neighborhoods literally every day and every night helping with Ice Watch, helping keep people safe, sending notifications when there were abductions in their ⁓ wards. your take on how local elected officials did and continue do because it's not over? And then secondarily, ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Check.
Brad Sigal: the role, what's your take on the role of the police locally, MPD?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I think a lot of local electeds did so much. mean, obviously like someone, think especially like Jason Chavez or Jamal Osman, who both had ⁓ communicate with lot of their constituents, but also have kind of the double duty of they were both getting out statements both in, English and then Spanish for Jason and ⁓ Jamal would put them out in Somali So that's just an extra level of work that they would do. ⁓ And it is still even happening today. know, just last week some of council aides found ⁓ ICE vehicles outside of City Hall. And so it was up to their aides and several little council members to come down and wait for the tow trucks to arrive. and again, this is a thing of like, where's the mayor? Because if you really want ICE to get the fuck out of Minneapolis, well, there they are parked in like MPD parking. Couldn't you just, wouldn't that be a good photo op? Mayor tows, you know what I mean? So. I don't think anyone ever figured out like what they were doing or whatever, but that, you know, that's something where we found out about this because it was the city council members who were posting it to their social media that this is going on. So a lot of them are still doing so much more. And I just it's, you know, I don't know what some a lot of council members who like voted, you voted against the rent or the eviction moratorium. Like, where are they on the streets? I don't know. ⁓ There's a very sharp divide, I think, between the progressive council members that you see that are just like on the ground doing the work and then the ones that you're just like, I don't know what the efforts are.
Brad Sigal: And even Council President Payne, he represents the Northeast Minneapolis where Central Avenue is a heavily immigrant corridor with lot of ⁓ businesses, Ecuadorian Consulate. he was constantly out there supporting community members as well as his ⁓ and posting and ⁓ information. yeah, markedly than what we saw from the mayor, I think.
Taylor Dahlin: down.
Brad Sigal: I'm curious your thoughts since you have been doing this for a while. you would just comparing Mayor Frey's role in this situation compared to when the MPD killed Justine de Mond or Damon, sorry if I'm mispronouncing it, ⁓ in southwest Minneapolis, which was another time when he jumped into the spotlight around that. Just that occurred to me and wondered if you had any thoughts on that.
Taylor Dahlin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, because that was when Hodges was mayor, I think, and then he kind of used, yeah, as his springboard, right. Right. And then, you know, of course, would, as we saw when when George Floyd was killed or when, any of these other than number of police killings, suddenly he wasn't the same ⁓ mayor that he was. you know, he had all the smoke for Betsy and then suddenly he's in that situation and it's not like.
Brad Sigal: And that was when he sort of jumped on that to get elected.
Taylor Dahlin: You know, I mean, the hypocrisy is just there's so many instances like that. and even then he was, there's another, he was just in the New York Times talking like Thomas Friedman. And he's just saying like that people, apparently in Minneapolis, we've come up with a new verb. It's called neighboring. Like that's when everyone's saying it. ⁓ I know. So it's just, he think it's just, he's just a habit of going to the press, any national press and just saying things. And I don't know. And you asked about the police too. It's, know, they said that they had already ⁓ their overtime budget already for this year. ⁓ ⁓ something that Frey also in this New York Times interview that just came out, he claimed that a lot of his ⁓ are thanking MPD for helping ICE, which like, I don't know that is. ⁓
Brad Sigal: You
Taylor Dahlin: did that. it's like why? Sure, they didn't help them, but they also just sat around and just collected a ton of overtime. Because like, what did they do to collect all that overtime? I mean, I'm sure it's just like, crowd control, but it just feels like milking a situation where and then they want like, pats on the back for like, oh, we didn't help ICE. and even though there's situations like Jason Chavez tried pushing O'Hara about 29th and Pillsbury. like Jason Chavez was on the scene of those abductions and he said, I saw MPD doing crowd control for ICE. And O'Hara just didn't have anything to say to that or any of the other examples that people will present to them of like, here's a real ⁓ world scenario of like, didn't intervene to help. And they're just like, well, we didn't get any reports. ⁓ So it just feels a grift.
Brad Sigal: So from this conversation, if people have listened this far, you can hear that your coverage, and more generally on Wedge Live, it definitely includes editorializing. It's not just an attempt to be neutral or ⁓ objective when local politics and elected officials. So I'm curious to hear how you think about that question of journalistic objectivity in the work that you do.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I think having just gotten started how I did tweeting, my opinions mixed in with things, I ⁓ just don't have you know, it's not I'm someone who went to journalistic journal school and like knows to like keep objective, like someone from the Star Tribune always brags that he votes a blank ballot. for me, ⁓ I mix in opinion. But I don't ever like make stuff up. So that's where I kind of feel like, I'm just, putting information out and if people don't want opinions with it, they can ⁓ get information elsewhere. I don't really feel the need to be neutral in any sense. Especially when ⁓ we have something ⁓ the Minneapolis Times existing right now, which is this really like. centrist DFL kind of reactionary blog that has a very outsized influence. former governor, think Arne Carlson's involved now, like David Schultz. And so, ⁓ you know, South Side just ceased publication. That was kind of a lefty physical thing. So I think We need all the progressive alternatives to, and when so much of our corporate media is so centrist DFL, I think we need as many progressive alternatives to that stuff in there, even as small potatoes as they are.
Brad Sigal: And even, I would say even more so now with Trump and his billionaire buddies buying up all of the national media outlets and social media platforms. Yeah. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on ⁓ that. we've been talking about a lot of things so far, but not a lot about photography. And this is ⁓ ostensibly a podcast. So I'd love to talk a little bit about your photography because you often ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yes.
Brad Sigal: are out camera in hand when you're doing your work. How long have you been doing photography?
Taylor Dahlin: God, got into it when I was a teenager, more than, I don't know, 25, 30 years or something, I don't know. No, how old am I? I don't know. I only went to school in that I went to Perpich Center for Arts Education, which is the arts high school. I went there for media, so I went there for like my...
Brad Sigal: Yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: junior and senior year and you just kind of get like a very basic ⁓ education terms of, but we did do like, you know, so you do like some ⁓ 16 film, some black and white, like photography and dark room development. and then some digital. So you do a whole bunch, ⁓ but that's basically it. And then I've ⁓ maintained photography for like whatever I'm into at the time. Like I into ⁓ music photography a lot in like, the early, to 2000s traveled a lot, used to see bands a lot, did a lot of photography that way. And then ⁓ kind of doing photography around like urban exploring for a while too. but you know, there's always been an element of like, like I photographed in my high school, we did the walkout for the Iraq war. And then I went to the protest downtown. so I photographed that and like, the RNC protests in 2008. So there's always been like an element of covering these things. And then finally bought another camera again, like last summer and really got back into it since then.
Brad Sigal: Okay. So I wanna follow up on at least three or all of the things you just talked about. So music photography, one of the earlier episodes I did was about concert photography. I'd love to hear just like what kind of bands were you and venues were you doing photographs at?
Taylor Dahlin: I did ⁓ website for this band called The Posies and then I kind of followed them around the US and then several countries in Europe as well. So they would be ⁓ smaller really tight. mean, like I've been like, I really loved in Minneapolis, I loved like the 400 bar, which isn't around anymore, ⁓ but were like one of my favorites or like. ⁓ the triple, what is it in Chicago? The double door in Chicago or like venues of like first, not even first Avenue size, like smaller, but then like in Europe. Yeah.
Brad Sigal: Like below the first Avenue Industrial Complex kind of places, more bars and little clubs.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so then I just did that like all around and then some other ones in Europe that were like even smaller.
Brad Sigal: Do you have your music ⁓ photography available anywhere? That's usually the last question, where can people see your work? But yeah, I'm curious.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah! Yeah, I have an Instagram, which I don't have a lot of stuff up, but I've had the same ⁓ Flickr account for like 21 years now. So yeah, it's still great for sharing photos, and I've continually put that up. So I do have a lot of my old, like I say old, like, yeah, the music photography like 20 years ago was there. It's just a really silly, like I had to pick, you have to pick like your permanent username. And at one point I just kind of like was putting, it's like,
Brad Sigal: Same,
Taylor Dahlin: I was just picking words on a keyboard, so it's like C-A-B-B, like cab with two B's. It doesn't even mean anything and I can't change it, so I'm just like stuck with it. Yeah.
Brad Sigal: For the rest of your life, ⁓ no. And you can't change it. Like on some of the platforms you can change it after a while, but no.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, they probably warned me. just didn't... I didn't care.
Brad Sigal: Yeah. And then the second thing you mentioned was urban exploration. ⁓ you talk more about that?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, so I got into going into abandoned buildings and like photographing and that was mostly because I would photograph graffiti in Minneapolis and then so was natural you'd want to go into those. And so I did a bunch of places that are not around now ⁓ or been demolished or turned into but like abandoned or water bottle plants. or like industrial spots. Yeah, ⁓ a lot. There's one that's really cool that it was an old water bottling plant and there's new owners now who bought it for the specific purpose of like keeping all the graffiti and stuff. So I'm excited to see what they do with it, yeah.
Brad Sigal: ⁓ really? there's just so many cool places, ⁓ This I think may not able to get to it anymore. What is it, the old munitions factory out like in, is it Arden Hills or something like that? And then there's like on the east side of St. Paul, the breweries over there, the, hams, the old buildings, those are, I don't think you can get into those anymore, but.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah! Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God, Ham's is now like redeveloped and like they turned it into like a working brewery. I have not even been. I'm just like, that's so weird. Cause I, yeah.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, there is a lot of cool stuff. mean, there's the caves over on the West side too in St. Paul that people have died in there. don't know. ⁓ But there's ⁓ places you can get that are safer. And so you also mentioned some protest photography around the Iraq War, maybe the second Iraq War or third, hard to keep ⁓ these days.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I used to do that. Bye! You be careful. Yeah. ⁓ yeah.
Brad Sigal: And then the RNC, the Republican National Convention, when it was in St. Paul in 2008. I would love to hear more, maybe specifically about the RNC 2008, because I was out there every day as well, and especially on the fourth day when there was, at that point, the largest mass arrest in Twin Cities history. get curious if we were out there on that day where there was tear gas and all that stuff.
Taylor Dahlin: I ⁓ no, I missed that day because I had friends that were too. knew people who were involved with, what was that, Citizen Journalism outlet, The Uptake, who were there like a lot, like live streaming. But no, I missed that day. Like I was looking back at my photos, I don't really remember even being there much. it's so weird because I looked at my photos and I was just like, wow, look at all those cops. that. ⁓ think that was just my life. ⁓
Brad Sigal: Right. You
Taylor Dahlin: was my first encounter of that hyper militarization of the police that I didn't even register.
Brad Sigal: Well, it's interesting because as who's participated in a lot of protest movements over the years, like the first protest I went to at a political convention was ⁓ in the democratic convention in Atlanta, And there was no militarized police, people just sort of walk up to outside the and ⁓ with a megaphone and start yelling stuff, know. ⁓ But really the post-9-11 atmosphere where these were declared national security events, that's where you started to really see. So 2004, the RNC in New York City, where they wouldn't even permit protests at all. so the big mass protest had to go with no permit and they were not allowed to have a stage. It was just marching to nothing. And then of course, 2008 Republican convention in St. Paul was the one that was here, but it was the first
Taylor Dahlin: Let's go.
Brad Sigal: up close thing that we got to see in the Twin Cities of one of these national security events where were you there maybe on the second day when Rage Against the Machine was supposed to play? There was a concert and Front of the Capitol and a whole bunch of bands and the last one was going to be Rage Against the Machine and ⁓ the police cut sound right before they were able to play and then Zach and Tom Morello came out into the crowd with a megaphone and just did like a ⁓ a cappella couple songs and then led people to march down to the Excel Center. was...
Taylor Dahlin: No. I was there with some, I remember there was a march that day, but I don't remember, there was no concert. So maybe they just did marches every day. not sure. Okay, there was a big ice sculpture that day, I remember still. Maybe it melted, I don't know.
Brad Sigal: Okay. There was stuff every day for sure, yeah. ⁓ okay. I don't remember that, but yeah, there was a lot going on. And of course, different groups organizing different things. Like there were the anarchists who did the, ⁓ what was it called? Welcoming or unwelcoming the Republican convention and blocking streets. And then the big mass march on the first day I was at that anyway, there was some coverage of the day four ⁓ thing I mentioned where the anti-war committee organized a march on the fourth day.
Taylor Dahlin: Right. Yes. ⁓ yeah.
Brad Sigal: as right basically as it was starting when the Republican nominee was going to officially be nominated. And basically it ended up being dispersed with tear gas and horses. ⁓ there's video I saw on YouTube where you see me sort of running past ⁓ in midst of all these people running away from the tear gas. yeah, and
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ my God.
Brad Sigal: I was not there in my photographer capacity at that time, so I don't have great pictures from that. wish I did. Anyway, sorry, starting sort of going down memory lane rather than focusing on podcast questions. so with protest photography, was that something you did more ongoing or was it just when there was those sort of big events like the Gulf War protests or the RNC 2008?
Taylor Dahlin: Mm, yeah. No! ⁓ going because one of my friends was pretty involved in like the Occupy Homes movement in like 2011. So I would go to him with some to some events. And then I think that was really the last bigger ones up until like 2020 when George Floyd was killed and then since then just more involved.
Brad Sigal: Were you out with your camera or documenting during the George Floyd protests?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, yeah, I hadn't gotten a new camera back then. I still had like an old DSLR that I was just not using at all. But I remember I was out at the third precinct on like the 28th before it burned in Target that weekend before they had secured it again. And you know, you're like, it's like under a foot of water. And I just remember walking in, I was like, wow, this is wild. Like the sprinklers are going off. People are like spray painting all over the merches there. Like yeah, I was.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, I went in the Target as well with the water and I got some incredible pictures in there and the Cub as well. ⁓ got to go up on the roof of the Cub too. Someone showed me how to get up there to get some pictures from up there. That was kind of wild.
Taylor Dahlin: Yes! Mm-hmm. Ooh, that's cool.
Brad Sigal: Okay, so you were out documenting during that time as well. And then there, of course, was a wave of protests that lasted months and even a couple years after that through the trial and then through ⁓ Wright and other things. That's one project that I'm working on that...
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ yeah. Yep.
Brad Sigal: I haven't completed is a photography book with photos and interviews with a bunch of people basically the George Floyd uprising to the two years after that. So ⁓ anyone listening, for my book to someday come out. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Hmm ⁓ good, yeah, that's necessary.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, so. ⁓ Getting back to, photography and journalism. ⁓ I would you an independent journalist. ⁓ You're associated with outlet that is, for better or worse, not universally loved by local elected officials and government employees. Have you had issues with getting access or being ⁓ not treated as a journalist by people who may not love ⁓ your work or the work Wedge Live?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I mean, we got like taken to like campaign finance court last year with some woman who was running for city council who my gosh, she thought we made this like fake website about her, which we didn't we didn't even make the website, but she accused us of making it and then we were like, well, no, maybe we know who made it, but we would have learned that as journalists. and then she kind of disputed that ⁓ and ⁓ it a whole deal, which it ended getting resolved where that they didn't even touch the meat of that issue. But yeah, I think they acknowledge, ⁓ a lot of places will acknowledge Wedge Live as press now. ⁓ It's like they don't. like us. Like we had RSVP the other day, John and I did to this like downtown council event that was like downtown conversations with the council members and we just RSVP'd and then they had to email us and be like, or it was like the CEO and he's like, it's not open to the press. Sorry. It's like But yeah, you know, then there's plenty of other people that just put us on their press release list. So I'm just like, I don't care if so-and-so won't acknowledge us as press. ⁓
Brad Sigal: do you have a sense of like the reach and the audience that your work has in comparison maybe with some of the local, legacy news outlets?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I think it's smaller. like it's interesting. one thing I've found is that there's still just a better reach for stories that you put out ⁓ on ⁓ Twitter in terms of getting ⁓ media pay attention in terms of versus like somewhere like Blue Sky, which I know a lot of people have left Twitter for obvious reasons, but. a lot of legacy media just has not moved over to Blue Sky and are not paying attention to what happens there as much. because a lot of what I do is I'll just put things out in hopes of getting it picked up by a bigger stories to get, ⁓ who can actually push people on things or because I don't have whatever. And yeah, ⁓ I've found that I a smaller and there's things ⁓ I'm not interested in. Like I don't video stuff. Like I don't make video content or I'm not interested in reaching that kind of stuff. So I know that I have a smaller reach. Like sometimes if I put something out on Instagram, I'll be like, wow, this reach is like a whole different people that I just never encounter on Blue Sky or Twitter. Because to some extent, that's just kind of, they're kind of like nerdy sites. You know what I mean? They're still in a world of like. where video is everything, you know, it's text, but I like that, so.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, we're in the day and age when you have to become a video content creator no matter what you do almost. I'm glad you're still resisting it. But yeah, I suppose with Wedge Live Podcast, that's video as well. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah. That's true, but yeah, it's a long form video.
Brad Sigal: Yeah. So one more question on ⁓ what of do you usually carry with you and use when you're doing your photography work?
Taylor Dahlin: I just have a, a Canon D, hold on, let me see it, Canon D something, D6 maybe? I don't know. And then I keep going back to the, it's a, I used it a lot back when I would photograph bands and stuff, but this prime like 50 millimeter, like F-stop, 1.4 lens, I just love what that does. Like I have all these other lenses, but there's something about that one. Like I had my first DSLR was a Pentax, which I don't even know if they make cameras anymore, but I had that same lens for that. And when I switched over last year to Canon, I was just like, I have to buy that exact same one. and it's kind of a pain. ⁓
Brad Sigal: Hmm.
Taylor Dahlin: Cause I do have, like Zoom ones and like those are so much more convenient, but it's just so nice.
Brad Sigal: That's why they call it the Nifty 50, I guess. It's kind of the perfect lens in a lot of ways. And especially with the aperture going down to 1.8 or 1.4, you can really do some amazing stuff with it. So we've...
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ do that. Let's see. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Brad Sigal: Gone through some stories of your experiences doing the work that you do. Beyond what we've talked about already, or maybe even including those, what are some of your most memorable moments in covering Minneapolis politics in recent years?
Taylor Dahlin: Um, a fun, I really, I still like the whole, Mickey Moore story. This guy tried to run against Jason Chavez the first time he ran and he didn't live in Ward 9. He lived like, not even close. I mean, like up in Oak Grove somewhere, which is like, no, like, like Anoka County, I think. And so it was just this very ridiculous character who would not admit that he did and he-
Brad Sigal: Like not even in the city of Minneapolis in a suburb. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: finally, I think, and then the Star Tribune endorsed him. this was after we'd just been saying for months, like, he doesn't live here, he doesn't live here. And then the Star Tribune had to like admit that they had to pull their endorsement. And obviously he lost, but that was still just one of my favorites because he was just the most ridiculous character. And then there's just ridiculous...
Brad Sigal: That's right. And you guys really helped break that story too, right?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, well, we were the ones who discovered it. Yeah, because his ⁓ manager started like weird on Twitter and that's how we like dug into it. and his wife was like posting just pictures of their mail on Facebook. And it was like, there's your address, you know, so it wasn't even like hiding it and just a ridiculous character. And he still pops up and it's just like, dude, you, but yeah. And he was the reason that, I think the following year, like Jason Chavez just refused to even screen with the Star Tribune. Cause he's just like, you endorsed this clown and you know, and then eventually it led to, one year the council members all refused to screen and then Star Tribune just stopped doing endorsements entirely. So that was all just very funny. And other, oh yeah.
Brad Sigal: I think that, ⁓ sorry, I'm just gonna say, editorialize on that a little bit, which is that to me it is a statement too on not to just bash the Star Tribune or traditional media outlets, but really the decimation of their newsrooms over the last, I don't know how many decades, where don't have the people, the reporters, to just put people on stories like this and ⁓ up and discover these kinds of things, and it's up to ⁓ random people to notice something Facebook and look into it and then some friends look into it and then it sounds like you had to push for months before the start you would even ⁓ look at it to verify It just says something about the ⁓ media environment that we're in, think.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah. Yeah, they never did. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, it's... Yeah, it's, mean, and then there's just like other incidents, like, I remember trying to see a Don Samuel's press conference and got turned away at the door. Like that's kind of like it happened to John Edwards once too. He got turned away at like an Osbury Warsome press conference. So that's like ⁓ the same, just... ⁓
Brad Sigal: So yeah, more stories, more stories.
Taylor Dahlin: the centrist candidates like just don't want us there. And it's like, okay, fine. it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, there's so much ⁓ going on that I still am watching terms of the city of like people are not sure what ⁓ we're going to expect from mayor in the next four years. Like there was, I remember when he won, people last year were like, okay, we're either going to get ⁓ the worst lame duck mayor ever or who's concerned about legacy building. And it's seeming like some ⁓ strange like combination right now, just the way he's seeking a praise from ⁓ national media.
Brad Sigal: And there's a lot of speculation already of his next political move because he clearly seems to be someone with higher ambitions. So yeah, What about going back to maybe where we were a little earlier talking about over the last few months, are there any moments or events or things that really stood out to you? Like I'm curious, maybe because it's closer to where you usually are covering things in Whittier, like where Alex Pretti was killed. I don't know, what are your thoughts? ⁓ imagine you've probably been by the memorial there
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, that one, that one was, that one like, I think hit home closer to me than like, Renee Good's killing did. I don't get over to that area of the South Side very much. And I spend a lot of time in Whittier. Like I, you know, it's just a bus ride away from ⁓ me where, and there's many restaurants there I've gone for years. And so that one was like really shocking on that level of like, that I kind of get, you know, what it feels like. Cause like, again, the George Floyd killing that was also a part of Southside that I just like, I don't go there very much. And so, but the winter year one really felt like, wow, I walk here all the time. So it was, it's a, a very, I still go there like a fair amount. And it, know, it also was on a personal level as like someone who ⁓ beat cancer, just seeing this happened to a medical is just like, holy shit, like this is evil. So like, that's why ⁓ this one is more. personal than all the others to me. So yeah, I've been there a bunch and it's still like, I was just there for the, I don't remember who put it on, if it was like the Whittier Alliance, but the festival that Dropkick Murphy's played. every time I'm there, yeah, it's just a really touching experience. And I'm very curious to see what they end up doing for the permanent memorials, both there and at Renee's site too, because it's like, I know the city, could tell after both these killings happened that the city did not want to repeat George Floyd Square. They didn't want people blocking traffic, they didn't want you doing anything, and they're still very, you can tell they're sensitive about keeping traffic flowing. so it's gonna come up to a head at some point, both of these. so I hope that they can do the right thing and preserve some form of memorial.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, and I think with Renee Goods, mean, that's a residential block. that has a different character ⁓ in my both George Floyd Square, ⁓ which is mix of residential and commercial, and ⁓ where Alex was killed, which is like a ⁓ major commercial that, like you said, everyone goes to restaurants at 26th and Nicollet area all the time. It's ⁓ just a destination ⁓ and also very dense neighborhood with ⁓ thousands of that live right there. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Mm-hmm.
Brad Sigal: So I agree, I hope they can figure out a way to preserve that. So for a beginner photographer, independent journalist, someone interested in doing something similar to what you do, like independent local or hyper local journalism, what advice would you have for them about where to start and what to do to build an audience?
Taylor Dahlin: just like going and covering like, especially your neighborhood meetings or like things that are happening in your neighborhood and what you see around you and what you know is especially helpful. Like people always ask, especially they'll be like, well, what's the wedge live of like St. Paul? And it's like, well, there, there isn't one. ⁓ so many of the city could benefit from something like this. cause you know, everywhere has like maybe a community paper or something, but that doesn't necessarily translate to online. and you know, some people like like just the most basic stuff, like just write about like what your council member is doing or like what you see in your neighborhood, And you'll just start wondering how does this function? And so that was how was for me. was I'd be like, well, why isn't the sidewalk shoveled? How does that work? And so I'd try to learn, well, when you report it, what happens at the city? like anyone can get into this. It's just a matter of you just kind of start by just doing it and ⁓ people will get into it. And just have to be kind of ⁓ curious and willing to self sustain your interest in things even when they're kind of boring because like You know when you're getting down to like the basics of covering like, ⁓ design your areas or like what's this little thing? But like there's there's just such an audience for that I think especially like in areas of the city that it doesn't exist so just like Go to your neighborhood things, just write about it, like what you see, take pictures of what you notice, and just post your thoughts on things and try to learn about, you know, how things work.
Brad Sigal: I think that's such good advice. for pure photography and for documentary and type journalism as well. Cause for photography, so many people think, and a lot of times people first get their, get a real quote unquote camera, cause they're going on a vacation on a trip somewhere like, I'm going to Paris. I need to get a camera ⁓ or I'm to Hawaii. I need to get a camera, ⁓ but don't about that where they live is someone else's vacation destination, you know, and there's so much interesting stuff going on in your neighborhood and you're the one who actually knows about it. ⁓ It makes think about,
Taylor Dahlin: Mm-hmm.
Brad Sigal: another maybe anecdote, I don't know if you'll want to add anything to it, but I think it wasn't at Wedge Live that sort of made Lake Chipotle into a thing, right? Where the Chipotle on, was it Hennepin around 26th or so, ⁓ just the driveway, because it was poorly designed and degraded, would just become a huge lake every time it rained. And so they're always posting pictures from Lake Chipotle every time it rained until they finally fixed it, you know? ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: ⁓ yes, yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, or like there's, you know, there's another guy who lives in South Minneapolis and he became really fixated on the Burger King, the abandoned Burger King. And he wanted it torn down and he wanted it built. And this was just like his pet issue. And he like narrow focused on it. you can accomplish a surprising amount if you just get into these like tiny little hyperlocal issues like that. Like you can have an outsized impact if you just put in the effort ⁓ for something as silly as like, yeah, like like the Lake Chipotle or like the Burger King that makes you angry, you know?
Brad Sigal: also think about like the, the sinkhole and Gerard, just off of Hennepin that happened and. In the Twin Cities, we know a lot about potholes, right? At the end of every winter, streets just become pothole nightmares, but that became like a massive sinkhole. You know, there's things like that that are actually quite interesting and do lead you into a whole thing, even just photographically, like, ⁓ that's interesting, a huge sinkhole in the middle of an urban area, but also...
Taylor Dahlin: you
Brad Sigal: gets into some of what I think you were just talking about where you're like, well, who's responsible for fixing this? Okay, public works department, which part of public works department, who's in charge of that? ⁓ why won't my council member, why can't my council member help me with responsiveness to public works? ⁓ because they restructured the government and now they only respond to the mayor. Well, why is that? And who's behind that? And you suddenly learn all this stuff and you know more than probably 90 % of your neighbors and you can help them understand it as well.
Taylor Dahlin: Yes. Yep. Yes.
Brad Sigal: So one other question that, you know, when people are getting into photography and starting to get more serious about it, it is an expensive hobby. Cameras are expensive. Lenses are even more expensive and other gear is very expensive. So people start thinking, is there a way I can like make money doing this to at least offset the costs of doing it, if not potentially make a living? Is... ⁓ the sort of hyper-local journalism and photojournalism that you do, is this something that you can make a living off of or that you think there's a way that someone who would want to could make a living off of it? Or is it just a passion, a hobby?
Taylor Dahlin: If you, I think you could maybe not, maybe not make a living, but like supplement. I think if you could get into freelance, photography and maybe getting contracted to do ⁓ jobs on a by case basis. But yeah, I don't know if you really could make a full living.
Brad Sigal: Have you ever had mainstream ⁓ media outlets come you and ask if can use your things or Wedge? ⁓ I imagine that might maybe has happened with Live when you get coverage of something and others want to use it. You know, that's maybe one way. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I have some like I'll have it happens more often ⁓ on Twitter with like video clips, especially that happens during like, like I have some ⁓ broadcaster ⁓ that ⁓ let use a bunch. And then also I was at ⁓ the Lake in Bloomington federal raid last June. So I had several content that people bought videos from that too. but overall I honestly put a lot of my stuff on Flickr as Creative Commons. Just because I kind of just I just want to get it out there. It's funny, I do that with a lot of, especially with my like local politics stuff. And then a lot of the Minneapolis electeds now, their Wikipedia pictures are like people take them from stuff I put on Flickr. So like, I'll know that if I'm like taking a picture of local elected. I'm like, ⁓ there's a chance this will wind up on their Wikipedia page.
Brad Sigal: That's interesting, I've maintained my page on Flickr for forever, ⁓ but I haven't added to it in a long time. it is true, like some of my band photos from in the day, like those pictures on Flickr still get ⁓ picked up and people contact me to use them. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah.
Brad Sigal: So I should do that with some of my pictures of politicians speaking at press conferences and stuff. Yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: You should. There's a big audience for that there.
Brad Sigal: It seems like Flickr is making a comeback. Have you heard about this big event they're doing in Minneapolis coming up?
Taylor Dahlin: It's a yeah, kept I remember seeing it like like they were hinting at like mode and I was just like what in what in the AI is this and then it ends up being a festival which is a little better but then I looked at it and it's like $350. It's a to it. It's a very like chicken fry coated event like it reminds me of when he likes was boosting when we had V con here the Gary Vaynerchuk like I don't know those crypto or
Brad Sigal: Yeah. Exactly. didn't realize that well, yeah.
Taylor Dahlin: what it actually was. Some weird tech festival here years ago. But I was just like, yeah, that's kind of...
Brad Sigal: I know some of these National Photography Conferences can be like that, a lot of money, but yeah, I think I share your view on that probably. So is there anything else you'd want to touch on that we haven't talked about in terms of your experiences or thoughts on photography and local journalism?
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, like 350. No, no, I know. I will say I think we're really lucky to have a lot of really good like, you know, photographers here doing photojournalism and just like movement photography and like covering like so much work, really good stuff coming out of here.
Brad Sigal: Yeah, it's been very notable during the George Floyd period and now as well how many people come out of the woodwork, both in terms of national media descending for a few days or a week or whatever, but then also just local photographers who don't normally do protests or show up to these kinds of things, but do other things who are out as well. And some of them then stick around and keep coming to stuff. ⁓ is, it's good.
Taylor Dahlin: Thanks
Brad Sigal: Well, why don't you ⁓ wrap up then with letting people know where they can find you if they want to follow your journalistic work, your photography work.
Taylor Dahlin: Yeah, I have a blog which I mostly did for like covering campaign stuff last year, but it's ⁓ TaylorDollin.com. So my name Taylor and then T-A-Y-L-O-R-D as in dog, A-A-H-L-I-N as in Nancy.com. And then it's the same on Blue Sky, TaylorDollin.com. is also just TaylorDollin and then Twitter I'm ⁓ there. If anyone's still using
Brad Sigal: That's what always think of you. Maybe I must have seen you on Twitter first, because yeah, I always think of you without the O-T-A-Y-L-R. Taylor. Okay. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk about the work that you're doing. You're kind of an ever present.
Taylor Dahlin: It's my flicker name.
Brad Sigal: person in the Twin Cities and Minneapolis scene when there's a press conference or a, council meeting or political convention ⁓ people always know they follow you and find out what's going on. So I really appreciate your work and thank you for taking the time to talk about some of what you do. ⁓
Taylor Dahlin: Thank you. Yeah, thank you. ⁓
Brad Sigal: You know, for anyone who's listened this long, please and subscribe and push all the buttons you're supposed to push to support, get picture so that we can keep bringing you great content this talking to cool people in the Twin Cities and elsewhere about photography and about related types of things like photojournalism and ⁓ independent local journalism.
Taylor Dahlin: Thank you.
