Adriano Kalin

I am being hunted for sport by my very own government because of the melanin in my skin.

And then to have the audacity to tell me I am the problem for using my civil rights to speak up for myself and my community.

I promise you, I am not the problem.

The Weaponization of Language How language is one of the first weapons in the arsenal of Anocracy.

A new photo essay on my Substack @adrianokalin

Topic: Language is the first weapon used by this administration, and it shapes the communities it affects.

Chicago has been at the forefront of advocating for civil rights, ensuring that everyone is entitled to due process. It breaks my heart. All people deserve constitutional rights, regardless of their status in the country. It’s something guaranteed by the Constitution.

Broadview, IL October 17, 2025

No King's Chicago, October 18. A photo essay on the No Kings March.

I'll never take for granted the access I get as a community member, showing the world that is being affected. I always try to show empathy first in my photographs. I stand with you in solidarity against authoritarianism.

Chicago, October 18, 2025 ❌👑

You don’t get to oppress me and then tell me my response for standing up for my civil rights is terrorism.

The People's Aperture | Adriano Kalin | Substack A social justice photography blog by Adriano Kalin. Documenting resilience and resistance one frame at a time through the lens of disability, BIPOC perspectives, and everyday life. Click to read The P...

@adriano-kalin.bsky.social is doing the work of documenting, with photography and words, what's going on in Chicago with the protests and the ICE invasion. I'm proud to support his Substack and this critical work: adrianokalin.substack.com

Please consider doing the same.

Adriano Kalin is doing incredible work documenting what's been going on here in Chicago.

It’s official: AIPAC is trying to buy my election to keep me out of Congress.

Apparently, I’m a “dangerous detractor”... by believing Palestinians (like myself and my family) deserve basic human rights.

But we’re not going to let AIPAC win.

Documenting U.S. State Violence on Citizens Exercising Constitutional Rights. Broadview, IL September 26 - 27, 2025.

Want to know what happened in Broadview, IL (a Chicago suburb), when ICE attacked protestors outside their facility?
Here is my firsthand account of what happened during the 48 hours of hell.

#immigrants #ice #press #photojournalism #chicago #photogrphy #independentjournalist

This was shot on September 19, 2025, and you can see from the silhouette of the person I photographed the chemical agent residue that is airborne, which was affecting the breathing capacity, skin, and eyes of every peaceful protester while they are in full military grade gear.

The Cost of Looking Away. The walls are being put up around all of our freedom.

My hope is that more voices rise up now, because silence only deepens the harm. A community is only as strong as the way it treats its most vulnerable, and right now this country is failing that test.

#ice #chicago #socialjustice #immigration #photography

Outside the ICE detention center in Broadview, IL, ICE is harassing and targeting protesters, media, and activists who speak up for civil rights. Sept 19, 2025

Thank you for standing up against injustice, Rachel! @theangrymathprof.bsky.social

Here is the article: open.substack.com/pub/adrianok...

In America: lynching feels closer than freedom in America. Content Warning: This article contains explicit material, including a historical photograph of a lynching from the 1930s. The image is central to the subject matter, but it may be disturbing.

New article is up. Please read. It's very important.

Content Warning: This article contains explicit material, including a historical photograph of a lynching from the 1930s. The image is central to the subject matter, but it may be disturbing.

If you don’t think he will use ICE at polling places to do voter intimidation, you need to really wake up. He is doing everything in his “power” to obliterate the Constitution, and people’s blind racism is enabling it.

Trump threatening members of Congress not to sign the Epstein files discharge petition saying it would be a “hostile act” against him is definitely something an innocent person would do. And scheduling a military flyover in the middle of the survivor press conference is also totally normal behavior.

Finding peace in the time of chaos How photography helps me cope with doom scrolling.

Finding peace in the time of chaos by Adriano Kalin.

Trump is building a 200-million-dollar ballroom at the White House while we are financially struggling to make ends meet for our basic needs.

I am so tired of this.

A conversation that is not talked about enough is that being disabled and constantly being hounded by medical companies and debt collectors simply because you're trying to survive in a system that does not value you.

I desperately want universal healthcare.

“Come here legally,” says the descendant of someone who showed up during Manifest Destiny, committed genocide, and called it progress.

Fear Is a Systemic Weapon: My Body is Paying the Price How trauma dismantles our sense of self.

"Your mind races, wondering if you’ll make it home safely or if today will be the day when I am met with my biggest fear, to be abducted and never heard from again."

YouTube video by Adriano Kalin Photography & Having a Traumatic Brain Injury

How having a TBI affects my photography.

YouTube video by Adriano Kalin This Is Why Street Photography Still Matters

I think as AI keeps becoming more annoying in our current timeline, we’re going to crave human interaction and authentic art.

I literally can't think of one department Trump implemented to benefit anyone who is not in the top 1%. I am not trying to be funny, I literally can't think of one thing he has done to benefit any of us.

9 unelected officials shouldn't have so much power, especially when some of them are actively going against the will of the people and representing corporations and religious entities instead.

Photography as Resistance in America Hope, the idea of resistance.

Photography as Resistance in America. As an immigrant. As a brown man in America. I am tired but I refuse to be silent. Photography is one of the best assets on showing our humanity.

YouTube video by Adriano Kalin Photographing Injustice as an Immigrant in the U.S.

My first YouTube video is a personal introduction to my work as a social justice photographer caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s racist policies targeting immigrants like me.

One reason I love black-and-white photography is that I can't use color as a distraction. I simply have to respond to the chaos in front of me and use compositions to translate an emotion through shadows and highlights.

If my photos bring even a moment of tenderness to your timeline, then I’ve done my job. I try to photograph the empathy that holds us all together.

Na vida, tem que jogar bonito.

This book is riveting and so, so infuriating. It follows 5 families in Atlanta who are struggling to remain housed and paints deeply compassionate portraits of each unit. It reads almost like a novel but is outstanding journalism

Take the photograph, it may not be for everyone, and that is okay.