Through the lens: Capturing Covid

 Steve first raised the idea, after seeing a few pics from the 1918 flu epidemic and having local educational institutions asking for submissions of images from the current crisis. He thought this project would be a great way to formalize the documentation. He threw out the idea to Paul and Nick and they jumped on-board; it seemed like quite an important project to both capture this moment in time and to document this unique and bewildering period as a historical document. We’ve had fun working as a team and as they say, many hands make light work.

It has been remarkable how varied people’s experiences have been. Some are thriving during the quarantine. Others are on the brink of disaster.  It’s the varied emotional and psychological responses that are the most interesting and these have been all over the board. We have been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have said that reading other peoples stories has helped them to feel less alone or living a singular experience. If you are having a real hard time, and many of your friends are thriving, you might start to feel “what is wrong with me?” Through other people’s stories they have been able to know that there is nothing wrong with them and that circumstances are just different for some.

Photography does something no other medium does, freezing an actual moment or expression for us to contemplate ad infinitum. Sometimes a photograph stands alone; in this case the images work better with words, as a sort of portrait documentary series. The pieces work to connect viewers to a broader shared experience and when successful, they serve to humanize the COVID-19 and quarantine experience, providing insight and perhaps comfort to the viewer.