Behind the Isthmus cowl: February 2026 – Isthmus

Staff author Liam Beran coated the ICE protest in downtown Madison on Jan. 25, the day after protester Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis. He took a bunch of pictures that day, and lots of the indicators individuals held had been literal: “ICE Out” and “Hold ICE accountable.”

But the photograph we determined to placed on the quilt of our print version this month was much less literal: “History has its eyes on you.” While open to interpretation, its message spoke to us, warning of the long-term destructive penalties of federal actions immediately, and the moral boundaries crossed.

Liam has written many tales for Isthmus since becoming a member of the workers in 2024 however that is his first cowl photograph. He is, nonetheless, no stranger to pictures. He has been taking pictures since he was a teen and considers his “interest in documenting visual subjects” his gateway into journalism.

Shortly after highschool, Liam spent a summer time working as a photographer for a kayak tour firm in Door County. Since then he’s executed sports activities pictures for UW-Madison’s monitor membership and information pictures for The Daily Cardinal and Isthmus.

“I always prefer any time I’m able to bring my camera along with me to a story — taking time to think about potentially compelling visual elements also seems to help with the writing process and figuring out what makes a story unique,” says Liam. “My favorite topics to shoot are street photography, protests and portraits.”

Liams shoots on a Fujifilm X-T5 and makes use of each a 23mm wide-angle lens and 50mm portrait lens.