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2020-07-27
Empty Rockefeller Center
During the height of Covid, when New York City first went into lockdown, it was surreal to say the least. I think the last time the city was so empty and void of life was 9/11, so to see it again in 2020 really highlighted just how severe the situation was. Two of my sisters, who are a nurse and hospital manager, talked about being in the city for work, and practically being the only ones working in person, and it feeling like some kind of post apocalyptic movie. I remember around May of 2020, I helped my other sister move out of her dorms at #NYU, and it took about 15-20 mins to get to the bottom of Manhattan (Union Square) from The Bronx, due to the lack of fellow cars on the road. To see such a highly populated and lively city such as NYC turn into a ghost town almost overnight was something of a shock. It was one thing to see photos, and speak on how insane the situation was, but to actually be in the heart of Manhattan at this time was… well scary. So, seeing such a busy area such as Rockefeller center be completely empty is insane to say the least, and brings up a sad reminder of just how bad things were in the initial stages of the pandemic. -
2020-07-27
Desolation
The moment I saw this photo, I felt the profoundness of it. The New York subway system empty. Normally people would be walking through these gates, flooding the long hall between trains and destinations. The thing that strikes me more than the emptiness is the long tunnel leading to the exit. Well over 100 feet long the tunnel seems to go on forever, a feeling that mimics the endless period of the covid lockdown. It just felt as if it would never end, and now, looking at the tunnel I feel a sense of sadness, as if a year of my life was wasted, one that no matter how much I try to forget, I cannot. -
2020-05-04
An Empty Street of Times Square
This photo was taken in Times Square during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. As someone who lives near the always bustling square, it broke my heart to see it so depressing and empty. This pandemic has prompted the question of whether city life will be able to survive Covid-19. Seeing the city so lifeless made me realize how reliant on tourism New York City is. All of the iconic activities that New York is known for, going to restaurants, museums, broadway shows, all had been canceled. However, despite the difficulties, the city maintained a positive attitude, with motivational messages to frontline workers and medical professionals displayed throughout Times Square. -
2020-05-02
Empty NYC
The once bustling and lively city of New York, thanks to Covid-19, transformed into a deserted and helpless concrete island. I captured this photo in May of 2020, a depressing time for so many in our city, country, and world. If I had taken an identical photo in the same spot at the same time 3 months before, I would have quite frankly been run over. The concept of one of the most crowded compact cities being abandoned was unthinkable as well as symbolic to the unimaginable and tragic things this pandemic has brought. -
2021-05-31
Empty Dusk of 6th Ave
The streets were different than usual, it was the ironic sense of peacefulness arising from emptiness. -
2020-03
Image from Inside a Closed Museum During Lockdown, Musée du Louvre
This is an image included in the article, "Museums, Curators, and Artists Find Innovative Solutions for Showing Art in a Pandemic". Taken from a bird's eye view from within the Musée du Louvre, the image shows an empty museum gallery save for a solitary employee. The image is captioned "An employee walks next to Martin Desjardins’s Quatre Captifs in the Musee du Louvre, Paris, closed to the public indefinitely amid concerns on the COVID-19 outbreak, 2020. " -
2020-04
Clean Hands and Empty Spirits
This story is a small snapshot into how I felt mentally, and smelled, heard, and touched physically during April 2020. It talks about how the smells and noises around me at the time contributed to my worsening mental state and the feeling of hopelessness. This is important to me because it was this time that I learned that I am mentally stronger than I think and that I can get through rough patches with the help of my husband. It was not a fun experience, but I grew from it. -
2020-10-14
Empty Chicago
Normally Chicago is one of the busiest city's in the United States, but due to the pandemic, everything was shut down and people became scared to come outside. This photo represents the emptiness that the pandemic has brought upon this typically alive city. -
2020-05-03
Flying Through a Pandemic
This picture is important to me because it it the epitome of the pandemic. The plane that we were on was completely empty and even though there was no one around me I still had to wear a mask. My dad and I were very hesitant to take the flight, but they were going to throw away everything in my dorm if we didn't fly down there. So we had no choice but to fly. -
2021-02-05
One year later - Erie Quiet
This is a picture near Lattie F. Coor Hall at Arizona State University. Normally this area would bustling with students, but now, a year after the start of the pandemic, it remains empty and quiet. -
2021-01-14
The End of an Era with Mickey Mouse for Californians
Since 1988, my annual pass has made Disneyland my second home. Growing up within walking distance of the park, randomly deciding to Disneyland to hang out was a normal part of our day. Bored after school? Want to go out to dinner? Want somewhere to walk around? Popping into Disneyland was the answer. It's not just that I spent nearly every 4th of July, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, birthdays, and whatever other holiday there is there, spur of the moment visits for us are like a non Californian deciding to go to Starbucks. Shoot, when my grandparents took me to the park to play as a kid, they meant going to Tom Sawyer's island - to us "the park" is synonymous with what most people call "Disneyland." Married with my own family now, swinging into the park on the regular is still our normal. Before the pandemic, we were at Disneyland a minimum of once a week, even if it was just to go on a couple of rides and grab a bite to eat. Today. for the past two hours, my phone has been buzzing like crazy with people messaging me about the news. As one friend said "it's like our safe space has disappeared." Disneyland has always represented a safe space, a respite from stress and pain and reality. The pandemic truly wasn't real to me until March 12, when Disneyland announced it was temporarily closing its gates by the weekend. We rushed to the park, and, as you can see in my Instagram post, I naively thought we'd be back by April. Reality hadn't set in. Still, through these 10+ months of being home, knowing that we would eventually be back at Disneyland was a beacon of hope. Acknowledging that life after COVID is going to change in ways we didn't consider is setting in now. I realize for someone who didn't grow up in the shadow of the castle, this all probably seems strange. But losing daily access to the place you have been the most for the past 33 years is a sobering moment. -
2020-03-17
Empty Pasta Shelves
When Australia first got hit with news of how devastating Covid-19, many people went onto a panic-buying frenzy, stockpiling non-perishable essential items. This is a photo taken at my local Woolworths with the pasta shelves completely gutted. Toilet paper, rice, hand sanitizer, yeast and hand soap were equally cleared out. Some stores went as far as to post signs out the front of their stores stating "NO TOILET PAPER AVAILABLE". As a young person who lives away from home, my regular diet consists of a lot of pasta (also because pasta is delicious). During this time I ended up eating a lot more vegetable soups, because ironically fresh fruit and vegetables supplies weren't particularly affected by the virus or panic buying as they wouldn't last in an impending apocalypse. It took about a month for grocery stores to re-configure their supplies, and the for the panic to die down slightly. When this first happened, the essential items were piled high front and centre at the entrance of the store: I walked in to this same Woolworths one day with a tower of 24-pack toilet pack stacked as tall as I was. This object shows how crowds can react in unexpected and instinctually self-defensive ways when threatened with a large and sweeping danger. HIST30060. -
2020-03-14
No More Pasta
This photo means that the pandemic was huge enough to impact people’s lives. They took all the essential supplies from the supermarket. Peoples’ will to live is huge and that makes them able to survive. That situation in the market was kind of a fight. The day before he took this photo, the French government announced a national lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He realized how the government announcement to lock people down without any prevention could cause chaotic situations. -
2020-10-20T20:17
The effect of a Pandemic
The photo I chose for this assignment is a picture of an empty hockey arena. Covid-19 really effected not only my decision to play hockey this year but the hockey season in general. Due to underlying conditions, in June I decided it was a smart decision to not continue playing junior hockey this year. The decision to not play junior hockey this year, has led me to start my academic career at UNLV. Not only did Covid-19 effect my decision to continue to play hockey, it also effected all junior hockey season around the world, most leagues are not starting their season until January and some aren’t even playing at all. -
2020-09-03
The Mental Load Of Motherhood Has Never Been Heavier
I know I’m not the only mom hurting right now. Many moms across the world in this period of uncertainty are hurting. We’re hammered with issues. Not being able to leave our homes the way we want to. Not being able to see our friends. The fear of sending our kids to school. Deciding if we should take a vacation to bring some normalcy back into our children’s lives. To improve our mental health. Financial stress. Stress about when this pandemic will end. Taking care of our children 24/7 without a break for the last five months. Caring for kids and working at the same time. Supervising our kids’ virtual lessons. Increasing anxiety and depression. The list goes on. This pandemic has brought so many moms to their knees. I see you hurting, exhausted, anxious moms. I see you running on empty. I see the toll that it has taken on our children and on our families. I want to offer some advice that I know I would appreciate getting. Next time you see a mother and want to offer support in a way that won’t kick her while she’s already down, rather than tell her to find a silver lining in this chaos that we are living in, simply respond with “I am here for you. We will get through this together. I know it’s hard.” -
2020-03-24T10:48
Cherry Blossoms without a Festival
This is a photograph of the Washington Monument when the cherry blossom festival usually takes place. It was taken when my family and I drove out to see the cherry blossoms, but when we arrived in DC, the roads were blockaded so that no one would be gathering around the cherry blossoms in large groups. If you zoom in closely, you can see cherry blossoms in the background, and that there are no people and hardly any cars. This photo of the monument taken when the Cherry Blossom Festival was supposed to happen is a testament to one the sweeping effects of the pandemic; the shutting down of events that used to happen every single year before. The photo itself is important to me because every year I go and see the cherry blossoms with my family and walk around the tidal basin. Looking at this photo I will always remember how empty DC was and how sad the sight of the solitary Cherry Blossoms was without people walking around to celebrate their bloom. -
2020-08-19
Wild Goats Wander into Town Amidst COVID-19 Lockdown
This photo, specifically taken in a town in Wales, shows that there are so little people and cars out on the streets that the goats find it safe to wander them. Apparently the goats are very cautious around humans so this is one of the only times they’ve even dared to come into the town. Artifacts like these are important to remember because they show the lighter side of things during the pandemic. Other animals such as coyotes in California and monkeys in Thailand have also been seen making their way into cities amidst the lockdown. -
2020-03-18
An Empty Bridge
This is a picture of the Oakland Bridge in the Bay Area, California, while completely empty due to the initial Covid-19 lockdown. This bridge normally has thousands and thousands of people crossing it on any given day, and at any given moment it will typically be packed with commuters. In the photo, it's almost completely empty. This uncanny image was the first thing that made me, living in a city on the opposite side of the country, realize just how serious the virus would be. At this point in time, most of my friends and family still believed we would be going back to school within the month of March. It was unimaginable that we would still be dealing with the pandemic in August, when I am writing this, and that we probably will be dealing with this for the foreseeable future. The response to this pandemic was quite obviously botched by the US and its institutions that are supposed to protect us, and by the end of this hundreds of thousands of people will be dead as a result. I fear a lot of people in the future will blame this tragedy on everyday people's failure to lockdown, and I think this image serves as an essential reminder that when we were first told to lock down, the American people locked down. -
2020-05-24
Empty Golden Gate Bridge
As the San Francisco Bay Area's shelter-in-place orders began to relax, a friend ventured into the city for a drive. She took this video of the light traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge is typically packed with cars. This is the lightest amount of traffic I have personally ever seen on the bridge. -
2020-04-09
Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA
Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA, empty during COVID-19 stay-at-home order.