ARKANSAS JUSTICE COLLECTIVE | ARKANSAS NON-PROFIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Let me tell you a story.

I have a friend. His name is Stephen Coger.

Let me tell you a story about Stephen Coger.

Stephen Coger, a small-town-Arkansas native, moved to Fayetteville to attend the university. During his tenure there, he evolved into a social activist that constantly, and exhaustingly, started trying to do his best to help people who were in less fortunate situations than him. A fluent Spanish speaker due to where he grew up, and a mom who was a paralegal for decades, it’s no surprise that he started working at Legal Aid of Arkansas, an organization providing legal assistance to people who wouldn’t normally be able to afford such a service.

He eventually found himself in law school in Seattle (on a fully paid, high-profile scholarship), and moved back to Arkansas in 2015. He passed the bar exam and began focusing on immigration law, working at Catholic Charities in Springdale as his day job. He did plenty of pro bono work, tried his best not to take his cases home with him, and quickly reintegrated himself into his beloved Arkansas community.

And then, as if he hadn’t done enough, he felt the urge to do more.

Fast forward a few years, and he started a non-profit organization called the Arkansas Justice Collective.

Its vision?

“The Arkansas Justice Collective envisions a world where no one lives in fear of state violence like deportation raids and unfair policing.  We see communities connecting locally and internationally to build a world where we all live and thrive in ways that sustain healthy lives for the planet and all the beings living on it.”

And how does he plan on fulfilling that vision? It’s in the mission statement:

“Immigrants and poor people survive and care for one another despite overwhelming odds.  The Arkansas Justice Collective is a nonprofit law firm serving immigrants and refugees through the practice of immigration law. We also advance justice through advocacy and published reports on situations that hurt LGBTQI+ people, black and brown people, indigent people of all colors, and other vulnerable populations.”

After receiving multiple high-profile grants, AJC is now off the ground and running, helping some of the most marginalized people in our society with some of the most complex and stressful situations they are subjected to.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to create some images for its first annual report. Designed by a mutual friend and artist, Greg Moore (out of Little Rock), it’s possibly one of the most beautiful annual reports I’ve seen. I mean, just check out that cover.

Here are some of the images I made in a couple of hours for this report. You can see the full report, and hear an audio file of Stephen reading it out, loud here.