Ooh, Look, People!, Pandemic Portraits evolved from my desire to represent in images and words the lives of my neighbors and the life of my neighborhood during the global pandemic.
From June 2020 I have been meeting with individuals, couples and families residing in my neighborhood inviting each in a recorded interview to share whatever they wish about their experience of living during this unique and challenging period. Seeking to make visible the nature of each participant's lived and felt experience I have taken time after each conversation to envision how I might photograph them. Returning to their homes at a later time, I have encouraged them, as I did initially, to collaborate with me in the portrait making.
Each resulting image, photographed with a medium format film camera, is presented as a gelatin silver print with accompanying text. The text is drawn from the recorded words of the participants and together the image and text comprise the complete portrait.
At its conclusion, the series will include thirty portraits representing a diverse population within the neighborhood and phases of the pandemic through January 2023. Viewed together the portraits will tell the story of one neighborhood's experience of and response to a critical period in our shared history.