Isolation

Isolation

 
A motorbike leans next to the foodshed of a Mexican restaurant where two men dine inside.
Man is seated alone at Fanelli's Cafe during a winter storm.
Woman smokes while leaning on the outside of a Rite Aid pharmacy.
A woman buys a movie ticket while a figure shown on the TV in the background looks over her.
Group of youths dines at Sarita's Mac and Cheese; the street is otherwise empty around them.
A sushi restaurant located in a foodshed; the chef prepares an Omakase meal for two.
Diners enjoy a meal in a foodshed while pedestrians walk adjacent to the structure.
A couple enjoys a well-lit date night at a foodshed.
 Shadowy figure sits alone at a nondescript foodshed; car lights reflect off the shed's plastic windows.
Masked woman on a bus; she looks forward above an American flag printed on the bus's side.
Pairs of shoes hanging on power lines above a single lit window.
 Silhouette of a man outside of a movie theatre whose sign displays a status that reads "temporarily closed."
The interior of a health store; a group of cardboard cutouts stares back inside the store.
Young mother and child dine inside a foodshed, pictured through a circular window in the side of the shed.
 Woman works on her laptop inside a tent-like structure meant to preserve social distancing at a hookah lounge.
The dilapidated inside of a nondescript shop where one singular display case is still lit.
Man and a woman enjoy a conversation under a closed storefront entrance.
Old meatpacking buildings stand in the forefront of The Standard hotel; guests at the hotel appear in their rooms in the background.
A neon sign reads "rent me" in front of a vacant gallery space in Chelsea.
Woman appears framed between the curtains of a foodshed; a tree and scaffolding center her in the photo.

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.

 
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