Documenting Civic Protest in Cold Spring

For more than a year, photographer Joanne Ziter has been documenting a steady ritual of civic engagement unfolding each Saturday morning in Cold Spring. From 10:30 to 11:30am, rain or shine, members of Joining Forces—a local grassroots group—gather at the intersection of Routes 9D and 301 to protest, reflect, and make themselves visible. Ziter has been there week after week, camera in hand.

A retired educator now living in Cold Spring, Ziter began photographing the group in early 2025, at the first “No Kings” rally. Since then, she has created an informal visual archive of demonstrations that have mirrored the news cycle itself: concerns about grocery prices, healthcare, Medicare, tariffs, and farmers; opposition to billionaire influence; solidarity with Canada; and responses to local and national tragedies. “The signs have reflected that over time,” Ziter says. “It’s followed the news.”

Ziter’s interest in photographing protests stretches back decades. In the 1990s, she studied photography in Paris with a small group of expatriates before spending more than 20 years in Brooklyn, where she worked primarily as a street photographer. She later documented demonstrations in New York City, including the Women’s March and student protests calling for stronger gun laws.

Her attraction to photographing people—rather than landscapes—has personal roots. Ziter’s uncle, Bernie Kolenberg, was a photojournalist and among the first American journalists killed while covering the Vietnam War in 1965. Growing up with his photographs, including images from his “Faces of Vietnam” series, left a lasting impression. “I’ve always admired his work,” she says. “He’s been a very big inspiration.”

While protests can carry an air of confrontation, Ziter describes the mood in Cold Spring as distinctly communal. Local guidelines prohibit vulgar signage, and the weekly demonstrations often resemble a family gathering more than a march. Children blow bubbles or play on the hillside. Someone brings a trumpet from music class; others bring drums or whistles. Protesters range from the very young to those in their 90s, bundled against the weather. “It’s a group that is there for positive change,” Ziter says. “People show up because it feels good not to feel isolated.”

That sense of presence—of simply showing up—runs through Ziter’s photographs. Taken together, they offer a portrait of a community expressing dissent not through spectacle, but through persistence. For information about Joining Forces demonstrations, email hudsonvalleyjoiningforces@protonmail.com. Ziter’s work can be found on Instagram.

This article appears in February 2026.