Items

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  2020-03-16

  A Year of Workspaces

  When lockdown started, I was quarantining with my husband, our 2.5 year old daughter, and our elderly cat, Floofy. This series of images captures a year of my workspaces (March 16, 2020 to March 15, 2021). I worked all over our house. The living room when I was on kid duty. The porch when the weather was warm enough. A brand new desk when the porch got too hot. The bedroom when my husband, who had been laid of in March 2020, needed the desk to job hunt and eventually began doing off and on temporary work in December 2020. I returned to the office some of the time in September 2021. My husband is now fully employed again. Our daughter returned to pre-school in September 2020. Floofy died in January 2022. She had attended every work meeting with me.
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  2020-03-15

  The Quiet of a Pandemic

  At the beginning of the COVID-19 quarantine, I was recently married (about two days) and had to immediately shift to online teaching. My school believed this was only going to last two weeks. We hadn't shifted to a live online class and were still teaching asynchronously with online meetings once a week for anyone who needed help. Since I taught U.S. History rarely did my students feel they needed help (even if they really did). My husband was still working, since his oil job was considered essential, so I found myself with hours of empty quiet time. Of course, I found myself originally spending hours watching tv and streaming countless tv shows. After a couple of days of this, I decided it was time to step outside. I'm from southern Louisiana so every good house has a porch you can sit on, and mine was perfect. My neighborhood was never incredibly loud, but I live only a few blocks from I-10 (the busiest interstate in the U.S.) and there were always traffic noises. For the first couple weeks or so of quarantine, you could hear a pin drop. It was an eerie quiet, and it took some getting used to; however, I would learn to love that quiet. I would spend my days on my porch (thanks to some unseasonably "cooler" days) reading, watching Netflix, and watching my neighborhood. Birds I had never seen or heard before were in my oak trees. I also learned that Robins are very territorial and would watch my cats like a hawk during nesting season. Blue Jays didn’t wait to see what my cats would do if they got too close to a nest the birds were swooping down on them. I learned that my oak trees have a fungus that grows on the branches and can help me learn about the health of my tree. People I had never seen before were walking with a quick hi as they walked by me. I had never heard my neighborhood so quiet before or since. While I dealt with anxiety that my husband would get sick at work, or I would somehow transmit the disease to someone who couldn't fight it I also learned to relax and enjoy the moment. I had very limited responsibilities, my students only had about 3-4 assignments a week and they were assigned on Sundays. I would certainly never wish to return to that time; I would however wish that everyone could learn to relax and enjoy the quiet even if it is from your front porch
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  2020-04-14

  Arizona Front Porch Project #5

  Local photographers, inspired by other groups around the country, are offering families photo sessions from the safety of their own front porches. The Arizona Front Porch Photographers are offering a portion of the proceeds to local charities.
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  2020-04-14

  Arizona Front Porch Project #1

  Local photographers, inspired by other groups across the country, are offering families photo sessions from the safety of their own front porches. The Arizona Front Porch Project photographers are donating 30% of proceeds to local charities. Families choose props and locations, and can get creative with their photo sessions.
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  2020-04-07

  Arizona Front Porch Project

  Local photographers are offering family photo sessions from the safety of their front porches.
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  04/07/2020

  "This Will Pass"

  It has been a common occurrence to see messages in windows, streets, and porches in the neighborhoods of Chicago. Social distancing has instilled barriers into people’s lives and these messages are a sign from others that they are with you, while we all experience the effects of COVID-19. Some of these messages are uplifting while others can be relatively nihilistic. Either way it can be seen as an expression of the anxieties that stem from this plague—there are plenty of unknowns, but messages like “this will pass” is a nice reminder that community is still present in these trying times.#DePaulHST391
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  2020-04-01

  Quarantine room.

  My husband is "presumed positive" for the coronavirus and is quarantined on our porch. (Presumed positive is the physician's term after a telemedicine appointment. There are no tests available, unless one is medical personnel or in dire health.) This image shows the room in which he is quarantined.