‘No pictures, no pictures’: The enduring images from Jan. 6

Photographers documented the events as a pro-Trump mob stormed through the hallowed halls of Congress on Jan. 6, but some of the most powerful images were almost never made

While the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was raging, it was photographs from the ground that made clear that a protest had turned into an insurrection.

Rioters violently confronting police on the steps of the building. People entering the Capitol through broken windows or broken-down doors. The traitorous Confederate flag being carried through the halls of Congress.

These images — quickly transmitted on screens across the world — have come to define that day.

But there were also scenes that photographers were not present to document. Moments that occurred in areas restricted to cameras, including the Senate chamber, the secure hideaways for lawmakers or inside the Oval Office, and were witnessed only by the limited few allowed in those spaces.

Paul

Kane

  1. The orange “police” sash hung on one shoulder and the automatic weapon draped over the other shoulder of the Capitol Police officer in civilian clothing who stood between the two Senate leaders, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). The chamber doors had just been locked, Vice President Mike Pence had been evacuated out of the Senate by the Secret Service, and the Capitol Police had taken over the room, barking out orders to the senators, staffers and journalists. For 15 minutes, as rioters were just outside the back door, carrying a Confederate flag, we were locked down. The entire time that lone officer, standing a couple of feet between Schumer on his right and McConnell on his left, rotated his eyes among the three doors where rioters might try to break through. He never said a word. He just kept moving his eyes from one door to the next and the next, and back again.
  2. A few minutes later, after police ordered everyone to evacuate the Senate for the underground Capitol Visitors Center — built at a cost of more than $600 million in case of an attack — we got to the basement only to discover a lone officer holding the CVC doors shut, all by himself. The supposedly secure bunker had been breached by the insurrectionists, he screamed, go the other way, go the other way. So, in an impromptu moment, police sent the caravan of senators, staff and press racing underground toward the Russell Senate Office Building, using tunnels to get there, before eventually finding a secure committee room in another building. I have no idea how long that one officer held that CVC door shut, but I think of him often.

While these images are confined to the memories of those who experienced them, much of that day was captured thanks to the harrowing work by the brave photojournalists of The Washington Post.

A year later, they reflect on the most memorable moments they witnessed. Images we can share with the world.

Matt

McClain

Astrid

Riecken

Amanda

Andrade

-Rhoades

Michael S.

Williamson

Michael

Robinson

Chavez

Bonnie Jo

Mount

Bill

O’Leary

Amanda

Voisard

Ricky

Carioti

Evelyn

Hockstein

Jabin

Botsford

Katherine

Frey

Oliver

Contreras

Melina

Mara

About this story

These accounts have been edited for clarity and concision.

Photo editing by Natalia Jiménez-Stuard and Thomas Simonetti. Story editing by Dave Clarke. Copy editing by Jennifer Morehead. Design and development by Frank Hulley-Jones. Design editing by Madison Walls.