Isolation Creation
2020
On March 13th, 2020, began what turned into a 87 day quarantine in my Brooklyn apartment in response to COVID-19. During that time I watched the city I had spent the last decade calling home turn into a skeleton of itself. I watched friends flee back to their hometowns and lose jobs, neighbors become strangers under the mandated mask law, saw bodies lost to the virus carried out of buildings more times then I wish to count, and find the blaring sirens of ambulances feel as normal as a bird chirping in springtime. I felt more fear, uncertainty, and desperation in those 3 months then I had known in my life thus far and what made it feel even more surreal was that spring was blooming outside right next to death. The world was going through this together; no one knew the answer, what to do next, or what would come next. It felt like for the very first time in our lifetimes we could all reset and reassess through this shared experience and through the birth of nature.
I turned to my camera as a form of escapism. Creativity became a tool for my mental and emotional sanity. New daily routines included making still life’s and self portraits with whatever I had available in my home studio, could get at a local grocery store, or access through technology. For the first few weeks I only had my iPhone until a friend donated a camera battery charger for me to work with my Sony a7 again. Through “Isolation Creation” I watched my sense of exploration and experimentation be reborn and break out of the constraints I had built for myself throughout my time in New York. I collaborated with people around the world through Facetime and other apps. For the first time in a very long time I was truly creating for the simple act of creating and for the feeling of joy, relief, and hope.
Below is a chronological organization of photos that were taken from March 13th to June 4th, starting from bottom to top.
