Pandemic Los Angeles 02

Welcome to the second entry in "The Public Work: Pandemic Los Angeles". You can find links to the Prologue and Part 01 below:

The Public Work: Pandemic Los Angeles Prologue

The Public Work: Pandemic Los Angeles 01

4/2020 | Social Distance

"Every time I step out of the house to run an errand or get supplies, I’m overwhelmed by how much has changed. It goes beyond the absence of people, extending to the strange new ways we use social distance to avoid one another in public. Photography in Los Angeles during the quarantine is an unsettling experience.

In this new reality, distance and the ability to maintain it is tied to social status. Although many have the luxury of working from home, the streets are sparsely populated by people who can’t. Many residents still rely on public transportation to get to jobs, run errands, and go about their lives. Others lack a home to work from at all. This pandemic has put them in a situation where they are forced to risk their lives for their livelihood.

As a photographer, I miss the rhythms of everyday street life. Social distancing has made proximity suspect, applying a layer of tension to every potential interaction. Passing a stranger on the street has become a potentially deadly event. This new normal is unlike anything we have collectively experienced before."

It took about a month before the magnitude of what was occurring sunk in. Going forward, the pandemic would remain a line of demarcation, forever separating what came before from the uncertain future we were (and still are) barreling towards. I was immediately struck by how large a role socioeconomic status played in how the shutdowns impacted people and how little that difference was covered by the media at the time. Lines that were once hidden became glaringly obvious as people in certain professions (myself included) were able to transition to remote work while many others, due to the nature of their occupations, did not have that luxury. There was a brief period when the front line and essential workers that kept our economy going were revered, but it passed all too quickly as American society chafed against the restrictions placed upon our daily lives. In the subsequent years, that bubbling discontent at the reality of the situation would eventually shift the direction our country was heading in.