Pandemic Los Angeles 01
End of the Beginning
3/2020 | End of the Beginning
Welcome to The Public Work: Pandemic Los Angeles. You can learn more about this 5 part series of photoessays by reading the prologue that I published last week.
Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin
I wrote the following paragraph at the beginning of the pandemic:
"The third week of March is when everything changed in Los Angeles. The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed most aspects of our daily lives. Our collective attempt to slow the spread of the virus has made the city seem strange and unfamiliar. Solitary pedestrians and empty streets are the new normal in places that are normally bustling with activity. Most people are struggling to adapt to this rapidly changing, utterly bizarre new chapter of American life. Although it’s impossible to see what the other side of all this is going to look like, it’s clear that things will never completely be the same."
The thing that strikes me about those words is how scary the beginning of the pandemic was and how prescient they turned out to be. Looking back it seems like a dream, especially since there has been a concerted effort by both the media and most government agencies to downplay how impactful the pandemic actually was. Anyone telling you that it wasn't a big deal or that we shouldn't have shut things down is either willfully ignorant or ill informed. The truth is, the streets were empty and people were dying at astronomical rates. People were literally fighting over toilet paper, bottled water, and hand sanitizer. Schools and offices were shut down, it was wild! As the gravity of the situation became clear to me, I quickly realized the disconnect between what I was reading in the news and what I was seeing on the ground. So I decided to document the year in earnest.
At this early point, any hope of a vaccine or other effective form of mitigation was months away at the earliest. Exploring the streets was like something out of a zombie movie. I photographed empty intersections that were usually packed with cars, people, or both. Most businesses were closed and many never reopened. As a photographer it was difficult to find scenes that conveyed the sheer scale of what was occurring so I focused on the details that jumped out at me.
The photographs in this installment were all taken during the first month of the shutdown so they reflect the sense of desolation that enveloped one of the largest cities in the world. One of the things that sticks out the most was how quiet everything was. I've never experienced anything like it in the 40+ years I've lived in Los Angeles. It was strange and it wouldn't last for long but defined those early days.
Thanks for reading and keep a look out for Pandemic Los Angeles 02 next week!