I'm sure everyone is well aware how stressful and anxiety ridden this semester has been. For myself personally, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I work at a nursing home in town, so when this all broke out I had to evaluate what was more important- exposing myself as a high risk individual, or taking a leave from my job and being broke, jobless, and unable to pay rent. The latter wasn't a viable option. There were so many points in this semester where I wanted to stop and give up, throw away all my classes and just lock myself in my house forever. Especially when my facility finally became exposed to COVID-19. It was hard to cope with all of this, I had only my partner to rely on. At some point me and my partner started to go for walks to clear our heads. There's something centering about acknowledging the smaller parts of the world around you. As I started to take photos, I was able to zoom in and recognize the smaller worlds that ...
Being a photographer during the COVID-19 global pandemic has many avenues to consider as every person on this planet is trying to navigate and understand our relationship with the world. The first thing to consider is safety. Experiencing a nationwide lockdown or a statewide shutdown means that people are meant to stay home in an effort to keep each other safe from the rapid spread of the deadly virus. My process for creating and sharing photographs is inherently limited by a stay-at-home order since I typically spend a work day meandering through heavily populated local cities and public landscapes. But on the other hand, photographs present us with an incredible opportunity to capture important moments, and the chance to look back on and learn from these moments later in life. Although we are all encouraged to stay home right now, there is an internal calling to go out with great caution and curiosity, and document our experience during this global hardship through photography. I briefly decided that I was going to try and photograph the shift in lifestyle that people are experiencing right now, but I was shocked by what I found when I finally left my house, camera in hand.
ReplyDeleteThe sweeping effect that COVID-19 is having on the world right now is a universal crisis, but the shift in the public lifestyle that I witnessed was met with split opinions on the reality of the situation. I expected to photograph empty city streets, the absence of traffic, and the lack of pedestrians walking along the city sidewalks that we are accustomed to seeing every day. But during the instances where I went out to photograph with a mask and gloves on, I witnessed people who are either going about their lives similarly with a new sense of fear and caution, practicing social distancing and safe interactions. Or on the contrary I experienced a city that is holding onto the normalcy that it had before it was shaken by a global pandemic. The traffic wasn’t missing, the population was very much still out and about. So although I was able to capture some of the drastic shifts that our environments are going through, it was only here and there. In my series of photos this can be seen through the abandonment of a once-busy local strip mall. But in other areas of the city where I expected to see a dramatic shift in lifestyle, what I saw was the same old hustle and bustle of car after car lined up at the intersections and going across the Maumee bridge that I grew up seeing every day we had nice weather.
Following this realization my weekly photographs shifted away from portraying the public altogether. Instead, I decided to try to use the medium of photography to explore my own coping process during this admittedly, emotionally taxing time. I am really lucky to know a friend who lives in the country, seemingly far away from the city hustle that even a global pandemic can’t seem to slow down. Over the course of the last month I’ve spent many days driving out of the city towards my friend’s farm. There, following a couple hours of yard work some days, I was able to roam with my camera in hand and photograph the open spaces and character of the land, a breath of fresh air that I am very grateful for. It’s long days full of activities, meaningful conversation, and kindness like these that really fill me up and feel glad that I am photographing. Moving forward, I want to travel, camp, and take a camera with me. Having a camera along for a journey that has moments of joy and moments of calm is calling my name and I’m really excited to finally go for it now that I’m graduating. This year might be drastically shaken up by the global pandemic, but it’s forcing people to slow down and recalibrate some things that might be a strain on us. I am not fighting the signs, I’m listening and slowing down, eyes gazing out and camera in hand.
Fabulous job Trent. Your work is very well done and thought of. I admire your work very much and can not wait to see where it leads you!
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