The Pandemic Lens^®

During a recent photo walk, I saw a face-shielded woman and was intrigued by her personal PPE—her semi floppy headgear was different from the rigid shields I’ve been seeing in medical offices and occasionally on the street. Her shield does double duty; it protects her mask from the rain and provides an added protection for…

Los Angeles has experienced a vivid shift in daily life since the beginning of the pandemic. Bars and restaurants are operating at limited capacity, small businesses are shuttering, and social lives have been curtailed. I am attempting to take portraits of people from all over the city’s diverse neighborhoods to illustrate how life has changed…

It’s just a matter of time. These images, which I began taking in the late summer of 2020, were certainly inspired by the global Covid-19 pandemic. So many restaurants and businesses are now in danger of having to close. Yet for some time prior to 2020 I had begun noticing more and more stores empty,…

This past week I had a number of chance encounters around Cambridge that lead to some interesting conversations. This is my favorite from the batch—I’m a sucker for dogs in back carriers. And this Corgi, named Pizza, stole the show.  Probably way more fun for him than sticking his out of the car window. No…

Lately I’ve been stopping passersby during my photo walks and asking them why they chose whatever mask they’re wearing. The answer of this masked guy topped them all: “People are afraid of vampires, so they’ll stay back!” Actually, he was kidding. He said vampires have intrigued him for years, and proudly showed off the intricate…

During an evening photo walkabout, I saw this creative sign in the window of Curio Spice, one of my favorite niche stores in Cambridge. When I’m shooting documentary photos for the Lens, I usually only post images of people, situations, and signage with a literal Covidian connection. But there’s a deep nexus between the pandemic…

Some days I document the pandemic in my area, Cambridge, Massachusetts, by remaining stationary on a street corner or some other vantage point and just waiting for interesting people to walk, ride, or drive by. This technique is productive when I’m on a major street that’s teeming with activity. Other days I’m on the go,…

I’m so proud of the children in my neighborhood. They understand the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic. They wear masks and play with siblings and sometimes with one pod-mate. Though they have greatly missed other friends and activities, camp and school, they do not complain. Here’s what I saw over the summer: big wading pools,…

Based on my wanderings around Cambridge and the surrounding areas,  it’s clear that people are pretty much doing what they always did—just masked, for the most part, and socially distancing when possible. Here’s a collection of outdoor activities I’ve captured during the past couple of months. Including one that surprised me–an outdoor “chalk talk” in…

You know them as a statistic; but they are really just like us. In late July this year, as the world revealed a “new normal,” a small group of us at NYU Abu Dhabi decided to conduct a social experiment to tell a different story. This may not be the full story; still, it feels…