Upon returning to New York at the start of 2021, I witnessed a very different city than I was used to seeing. “Isolation” is a visual representation of the loneliness and the emptiness found on New York City’s streets during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Isolation
I experienced a version of the pandemic that made me feel lonely, trapped, and constrained. While I watched many of my friends ignore social-distancing protocols and disregard blatant health concerns of others around them, I remained stuck inside for most of last year, unable to see even my closest friends. For me, and I’m sure countless others, the pandemic was a challenging period to live through. However, upon returning to New York at the start of 2021, I witnessed a very different city than I was used to seeing: boarded-up department stores; masked figures everywhere the eye could see; shacks hastily put together by restaurants with their occupants spilling out into the middle of the street.
“Isolation” is a visual representation of the loneliness and the emptiness found on New York City’s streets during the Covid-19 pandemic. The goal of this project was to document how Covid-19 had changed the city visually. In making these photographs, they acted as a form of catharsis for me. I was able to both self-isolate while also making these photographs throughout the Spring 2021 semester.
These new changes to New York’s functioning inspired me to photograph how I saw the transformation of the city. But, most importantly, I believe I was responsible for making these images to serve as a document of this time and era.