Seeing 2020 Photography Under Quarantine Juried Catalog

SEEING 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY UNDER QUARANTINE

SEEING 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY UNDER QUARANTINE

PHOTOGRAPHY UNDER QUARANTINE G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N C ATA L O G ORGANIZED BY JENNIFER THORESON J U R I E D B Y A N N PA L L E S E N M A R C H - A U G U S T, 2 0 2 0

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FOREWORD In 2020, the air feels different, like we’re living in a thick fog, collectively unable to see what lies around the next bend.

No one has been untouched by the precariousness of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. For many, this time has meant uncertainty in terms of steady income, childcare, education, concern for loved ones, and well-being. Despite significant challenges, there have also been moments of sweet connection; renewals of long dormant friendships; a chance for rootedness in family and place; acts of community engagement, support, and activism; and great sparks of creativity. In March 2020, as many faced considerable changes to the normal rhythms of life, Jennifer Thoreson created the Photography Under Quarantine Facebook group – a beautiful manifestation of a rich artistic community.

Simultaneously outwardly and inwardly focused, the group proposes that, in a time when many are physically separated, artists can join together virtually to introduce more beauty in the world. It seeks to uncover complex, creative responses to new and unfamiliar constraints, and gives space for artists to be inspired by one another. In the group, the artists critically engage with the thoughtful, relevant, and thought-provoking topics set forth each week. The weekly themes challenge the artists to contemplate the time in which we are now living, asking what the current circumstances mean for those things each artist holds most dear – for relationships, faith, connections with others, and the process of creating itself.

Many of the artists adopted new practices and methods of working in response to the group’s stipulation that all aspects of the photographs submitted were to be completely new creations crafted during the week of the challenge, while maintaining all social distancing and sheltering in place rules. This constraint on the creative process led artists to imagine their physical spaces and the things they owned in novel ways. Some artists handmade physical objects to include in their photographs. Many artists used themselves and their families as models in their images, adding layers of meaning to their personal conceptualization of the themes. Artists who had previously created a library of stock images to digitally edit into their works created a new collection, created solely from their quarantine environment. From these parameters, artists generated rich images and visual articulations, ranging from whimsical and playful pieces, to deeply personal works that convey pain, hope, fear, and love.

Almost 600 members have contributed unique, beautiful images to the group’s challenges that show a variety of perspectives, subjects, processes, and artistic styles. Along with each image, the artists have taken time to tell their story – of their process, of their thematic conceptualization, and of their personal inspiration for the work. The stories shared range from fun, light hearted observations of the world, to experiences of true grief that convey the artist’s sense of loss, longing, or anxiety. In sharing personal stories, the members have given not only the products of their creation, but also their vulnerability to the group. The gravity of such freely shared vulnerability is reflected through the community feedback given on the individual works. Overwhelmingly, the members respond with great insight, kindness, and respect of each personal story, building one another up through true study of each other’s work, and words of constructive criticism and support.

The Photography Under Quarantine Facebook group became a genuine community, bonded through a shared love of creating, critically engaging with different conceptual themes and constraints, and collectively working to make and see more beauty. The members have created separately, but have worked together toward a unified goal, investing in one another, and building one another up. In a time when most are sheltering in place, and unable to physically gather, this group has encouraged new ways of joining people together, many of whom were strangers to one another at the start.

Through the fog of 2020, the Photography Under Quarantine group has captured moments of clarity that express conviction, understanding, challenge, and hope.

— Rebekah Bellum

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“Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor. Perhaps, in a way, that’s where humanity is now: about to discover we’re not as smart as we thought we were, will be forced by life to surrender our attacks and defenses which avail us of nothing, and finally break through into the collective beauty of who we really are.”

— Marianne Williamson 4

SAMANTHA GOSS Greenville, South Carolina, USA Lazaretto Right before quarantine, I had just started a new medical journey exploring my many years of full body joint pain. Most days, I look back at my past healthier self and wonder if I’ll ever be her again. To be healthy and live easier seems more like a concept than something that is obtainable. As I long for that person again, I’m often reminded that I can’t stay in the past, and should find happiness within the present.

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LESLIE CASTRO Corpus Christi, Texas, USA Fibres of my Being This sculpture transforms materials that are normally used for comfort and craft into something stark, visceral, and uncomfortable. The lungs were crafted to be porous and fragile, to make the distress palpable. I wanted to create something symbolically heavy out of delicate, unassuming threads to reflect the weight of our global situation.

Blue tulle represents a lack of oxygen, red embroidery thread is lifeblood.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Toilet Paper

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CARRIE TAFOYA-HESS Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Shelter The onset of COVID-19 happened suddenly, like a storm. I wanted to shelter my children with the gentle wings of a mother swan, and I prayed my hands would be transformed.

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CARRIE TAFOYA-HESS Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA What Have I Touched?

Pompoms from one of my daughter’s sensory bins cover my hands. We have them in our home solely for the purpose of touch, and they have been well worn. When COVID-19 hit, I suddenly became hyperaware of what I may be carrying on my hands. Microscopic threats become giant.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Don’t Touch In this image, I propose a one-size-fits-most solution to quell the habit of face touching. This method is also medically proven to reduce the spread of germs through contaminated droplets emitted from the mouth or nose.

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TAMMY SWAREK El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Essential vs Non-Essential This piece is meant to raise the question of personal priorities. During any tragedy we tend to shed what is unnecessary and focus only on what is actually needed for survival. The human body does this when in shock by constricting (narrowing) blood vessels in the extremities to conserve blood flow for our vital organs. We also do this psychologically and it is just as important to surviving.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Devil’s Claw While on a walk with my family, I discovered this unusual object, picked it up, and tucked it into my shoulder bag. Upon returning home, I searched for a dark, smooth surface to pair it with, to make a photograph that would celebrate the unusual shape and detail of this tiny treasure. I photographed it on our charred pizza stone by simple window light. This simple act brought great joy, and a heightened awareness of the ordinary, mundane objects that surround me every day in my own home. The act of making this picture began the group, Photography Under Quarantine. I wanted to share this simple joy with others, with hope of spreading an undercurrent of peace and good will during a dark, uncertain time in our world.

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LESLIE CASTRO Corpus Christi, Texas, USA Unfurl This image is a simplified observation of humanity, collectively and individually. We all begin crisp, new, blank. Slowly we gather stains, experience, creases, age. Some of us will quickly unfurl from the weight, some will become flexible and hold shape while still stretching toward new boundaries, and others will hold on tightly, stubbornly, and suppress change. Paper sculpture made from torn and coiled strips of printer paper, ink dyed, affixed with glue.

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TAMMY SWAREK El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Building Heaven in My Bedroom This piece explores my deep rooted faith, and where it began. I had my first religious experience in church with my grandmother. I wanted to recreate the exact moment my personal relationship with God was born.

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CARRIE TAFOYA-HESS Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Light Spills Light spills onto my cutting board as I do the dishes.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Prayer Glove For this photograph, I manipulated a blue rubber exam glove by painting hundreds of red markings in acrylic paint. I then used a needle and embroidery thread to puncture the glove and add a continuous thread through the index finger. Each red paint mark represents one repetition of the simple prayer: “God protect my children.” The glove is physical evidence of a prayer spoken several hundred times. I asked my husband to wear the glove and lay hands on our son for this photograph. I punctured the glove to indicate it’s failure, illustrating the limitation of my own ability to protect my children. Though I grew up in the church, prayer is still very much a mystery to me, and is a very important part of my own perception of my faith.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Collectible For this photograph, I constructed a face mask out of my four-year-old son’s white play-doh. I then used his ultra-washable watercolor set to paint a Covid virus floral design, mimicking a hand-painted fine china pattern. I glazed the mask with white school glue to give it a sheen, and the appearance of a glossy porcelain collectible. In this piece, I’m interested in illustrating the disposability and impermanence of such critical objects. Face masks have become precious, like fine collectibles, and a widelyrecognized symbol of the pandemic.

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LESLIE CASTRO Corpus Christi, Texas, USA Gilded Cage Our homes may be ornate, luxurious, and aesthetically beautiful, but when freedom is withheld, we are simply birds in gilded cages. Miniature replica of a bourgeoisie villa depicted. Golden champagne cage chair, miniature masterpieces, marble tile walls.

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LESLIE CASTRO Corpus Christi, Texas, USA Worldly Possessions This image is a collection of superficial earthly treasures. A pound of gold is not worth an ounce of health. A wealth of possessions is not worth a single human soul.

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COURTNEY VERNIER Little Elm, Texas, USA The Water of Life

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One of the things that has given me hope during this dark time is the emerging stories of Americans repurposing their businesses to assist the fight in any way possible. My husband is a Police Officer, and the pictured hand sanitizer was gifted to his department by a local whiskey distillery who has produced it in response to the world wide shortage.

I chose to create this as a light painting because I really wanted the edges to boldly stand out in the dark the way these businesses have amongst the hysteria and sometimes abject selfishness of others. I’ve presented it in black and white because it feels reminiscent of Prohibition -- only in this case,“the water of life” is hand sanitizer rather than whiskey.

LORI MARTINEZ Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Worlds Apart I took this photograph during one of our “visits� with Nana during lock down. The hands of my three children touching hers were separated only by the glass of my screen door, but it felt like there was a world between them. The sadness and longing for her babies was so tangible as she gazed through the glass. We were not made for isolation.

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CARRIE TAFOYA-HESS Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Boarding Up At the beginning of COVID-19, my husband and I began fixing up my in-laws’ property and moving in. We have spent many hours patching up holes and re-finishing the drywall mud throughout the house, but it seems to be an endless process. In our home, we have struggled to arrive at clear boundaries around visitors. This has been the cause of much tension. In both my physical space and my interpersonal relationships, I have found myself trying to seek control by sealing up the gaps: blocking the world out and my family in. I see no evidence of the pandemic subsiding, and I feel it creeping through the cracks, invading my barricade. I used yarrow to signify normalcy and people’s good intentions that feel like an invasion on my family. Flowers are a loving gift that represent people coming together, but to me they look like the enhanced, bright yellow, microscopic images of the virus.

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PAMELA KORMAN Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Untitled Although we locked down together as a country, our lockdowns were individual, personal experiences filled with both sacrifice and gain. In this image, through photographic capture and digital collage, a solitary tree trunk slicing through the textured ground and sparse background illustrate the balance between scarcity and plenty, between isolation and community, and between withering and flourishing. In my time of confinement, I sacrificed freedom, abundance, and choice, but gained children returning home, a forced slowdown of life, and a re-evaluation of priorities. Through this image, the tension of an unknown future, and feelings of seclusion give way to the hopefulness of new growth, glimmering at our roots.

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ELIF ONALP Ankara, Cankaya, Turkey Pureness (1 of 2) During quarantine, I had a peaceful experience; it felt freeing to be away from society.

It was a period of unlearning and emptying from societal programs and constructs, an experience of how every moment of a day can be deeply meditative. So I was called to do something with pure white space, that reflects this experience, and my love of photographing human figures inspired me to find alternative models, due to quarantine. For these images, I illustrated and cut my figures out of paper, and photographed them in white space.

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ELIF ONALP Ankara, Cankaya, Turkey Pureness (2 of 2)

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LESLIE CASTRO

Corpus Christi, Texas, USA Pandora This image is meant to be a symbolic representation alluding to an unlocking and releasing of chaos in 2020. The character in the image plays with the idea of the Pandora’s Box myth, and the subsequent terrors, hardships, and diseases that come into the world. When translating the Greek story, we do learn that the box might be a burial jar, this image is not meant to be a literal reference.

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STEPHANIE LUKER El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Isolated Hope For me, photographing flowers became a time of peace and calmness in a time filled with concern and unrest. How reassuring that even flowers cut from their normal routine still reach for light and hope for a better tomorrow. My time isolated with family left me feeling overshadowed by something I had no control over. But I quickly learned, that as long as I have a heartbeat and can see a glimmer of light, I would reach for hope also.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Essential Onesie, Non-Essential Onesie These photographs are representative of the new significance and lasting effects of the word ‘Essential.’ While I understand the need for the labels assigned to each individual during the pandemic, having the label ‘Non-Essential’ has had a profound effect on me. By assigning these labels to new babies, we think twice about their true meaning, and consider every person’s value and essential role as a human being in society.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Covid Baby This photograph is a selection from my series, Covid Baby. For this work, I hand painted hundreds tiny red blood cells and illustrations of the Covid-19 virus using watercolor paints and pencils, and applied the artwork to commercial baby garments. I’m interested in the decorative nature of these forms, and how they eerily translate into floral designs or trendy animal prints. This began as I was thinking about my essential role in protecting my two small children. I struggle with anxiety, and as the pandemic worsens, I keep imagining the virus creeping onto their skin and into their bodies as they sleep at night. This image is an illustration of my anxiety, and the pressure of performing one of my most important roles as a parent—protecting my children.

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TARA DENNY Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA Eve Obscured I am obsessed with obscured faces. To me they pose so many questions to the viewer. “Who is that? What are they hiding? What is the story?”

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ROCIO VILLANUEVA Guatemala City, Guatemala Surreal In this image, I am trying to illustrate the idea of blind obedience; combined with sheltering in a place—every character without arms to reach or hands to touch. With the striped leggings, I am representing a mime, who is voiceless but protected by its box.

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LAURA SWIFT Newport, Virginia, USA Carried by My Best Friend This is a composite of a photo of me and my mom at similar ages with her (on the left) at 20 and pregnant with me (on the right) at 23 on my wedding day. We were both private about our own concerns, we birthed babies quickly, we both hated the smell of the local paper plant, and we both had a joy for life that showed on our easy smiles and contagious laughs.

She taught me the ability to be a good friend, to look deep into a person and see goodness, and she was in fact my very best friend. She carried me in this photo and now I carry her, in my memories, and long for those arms to hold me again.

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LISA KUHNLEIN Anacortes, Washington, USA Dialogue Quarantine has inspired daily contact with my immediate family. We started a weekly video conference call and a group text between the six of us that has continued for months. It includes the everyday moments and the bigger conversations - all of us sharing our lives on a daily basis as it was before we had our own families. This simple contact has given me more comfort than any other thing during this pandemic. My goal with this photograph was to depict how powerful this ongoing dialogue has been to my well being. Making the conversation almost regal and worth recording on a large scroll and yet haphazardly hung speaks to its utility.

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ASHLEY GURLEY Stephens, Arkansas, USA Simple Chats I have found that simplicity and connection combat the pressing worry and fear of the last several months. Simple play, nostalgia, and communication all played an important role when envisioning this image. After making a simple toy from metal cans and yarn, I showed my children how to play and they took it from there. We can learn much from the young.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Pandemic Cookies Missing my Mom during the pandemic was challenging especially during Easter when we normally would have shared a family meal together. I created these cookies to honor her, using a favorite cookie recipe she made during my childhood and hand cutting the M and O cookies. My five year old daughter decorated them.

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BRENDA SPIELMANN Toronto, Ontario, Canada Beauty Everywhere I photographed an artichoke because of all its amazing nutritional value and to represent the importance of food. This pandemic has brought many social issues to light, including the disparity between people who can and cannot access food readily. I decided to “pose� it making the ordinary, extraordinary. I used an old tintype treatment to illustrate that food is as old as we are.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Droplets This image was created while improvising with a single sheet of tracing paper and the illuminated screen of my iPad. I simply displayed a portrait on the screen, covered it in tracing paper, and photographed the juxtaposition. By lifting the bottom edge of the paper, parts of the face and body became obscured and abstracted, almost as if a thick fog had set in. While observing this shift, it occurred to me that this apparent fog is a series of droplets; this simple combination of objects made palpable the invisible infectious droplets that linger in the air around us.

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ASHLEY CUMMINGS Denver, Colorado, USA Faith Fallen The woven threads of lace remind me that although I feel like my faith is fleeting during this pandemic, there are still pieces of the fabric of my being that are keeping me whole, even if there are holes. I am continually trying to hold on to things I believe will protect me but sometimes my fingers drop that which I believe in... and I’m trying to hold on, every week, every day, every minute.

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RENE TREECE ROBERTS Asheville, North Carolina, USA Pressed Flowers These are flowers from the back yard, pressed against my bedroom window with wax paper.

When I ran out of people to photograph, I turned to the plants in my yard. I have always been a nature lover. These brought me joy.

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TAMMY SWAREK El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Paint on the Cob This piece is an unusual pairing of unrelated objects that I created for a visual pun. The pop art color palette I chose is meant to enhance the comedy in almost a cartoonish way.

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TERRY SPOSITO Blaine, Minnesota, USA My Little Corner I created a simple photo that would resemble a graphic image. I started with plain white walls and added a red floor to generate warmth and impact. The mouse hole was for a touch of humor or whimsy and to suggest life’s imperfections. Since this was a quick, ten-minute challenge, I used an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and duct tape as my set.

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LESLIE CASTRO

Corpus Christi, Texas, USA Disposable A minimal illustration to remind the viewer to be mindful of disposable habits, particularly in contrast to past generations. Kleenex box, Vintage handkerchiefs.

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JUDITH BARAT Santa Barbara, California, USA Fifty Years Without faith in a higher power I look inward for sustenance. At the core lies my husbands love and support throughout our tragedies and triumphs over our shared lifetime together. This is where my faith lives.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Essential Waste In this photograph I depicted the plight of the essential worker during the coronavirus pandemic.

I explored the word “essential” as it applies to low income workers that we rely on as a nation.

I approached this by integrating the two seeming “waste products” of the meat industry, acknowledging the meatpackers whom we rely on in our food chain while also acknowledging that they are treated only as essential as the packaging that we throw away. “They designate them as essential workers and then treat them as disposable,” Joe Biden said of the meatpackers.

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COURTNEY VERNIER Little Elm, Texas, USA Essential/Non-Essential This unassuming nursing bra stands as a testament to a very essential task of single handedly nourishing a new life. I chose to photograph black on black because at 17 months old, the line between essential/non-essential in this role as a mother is blurring. I’ve come to the conclusion though that the age-old ritual of putting a baby to the breast and feeling their warm, heavy, little body fall blissfully boneless in your arms is as much about providing comfort, security, and calm to a toddler as it is about nourishing their body or reaping whatever benefits breast milk might offer their immune system during a pandemic. My baby girl experiences the act of nursing as a physical expression of love and I can’t help but acknowledge that these moments are maybe as essential to my soul right now as they are to hers.

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SHADI DUNKIN Austin, Texas, USA Remember This Staring solidly in to the present. A stable look through the ivy and bathing in hope that the light from the window delivers. Calm and strong.

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SHÄ€NA EINHORN Long Island, New York, USA Lost in Space Directed to create work using boxes as the subject was initially quite uninspiring, and left me bewildered. This feeling had become omnipresent within the greater context of the quarantine and pandemic. Notably, the process proved to be a focused, cathartic exploration offering solace and validation.

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SARAH PRALL Easthampton, Massachusetts, USA The Distance Between Us There is beauty in every single thing… this becomes most clear when surrounded by ugliness. Everything is connected… you find this to be most true when required to keep your distance. What a time we are in, I find myself dazed by the absurdity of it. This is my neighbor and her daughter, and the backyard fence we share. She is immunocompromised, and already had a stash of cheerful face masks. We connect now at a distance, over the fence, when our children used to play together. The ball in the air is how everything feels right now... who threw it, who’s catching it? And then the watching of each other, over our mutual barriers, instead of the physical contact we had so recently. What is simply real right now is profoundly surreal.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Moss Carpet

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Ten Braids (1 of 2) In these two photographs, I am experimenting with the sculptural properties of human hair. I am interested in the metaphors that hair offers up—literal DNA, evidence of life, fragility, and temporariness. While under quarantine, our home is continuously occupied and under heavy use. I notice more accumulation of hair, dust, crumbs, fingerprints, smudges, all signs of life within our walls. Each braid seems like a specimen, or remnant, and serves as a literal representation of DNA and proof of life in this space.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Ten Braids (2 of 2)

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EVANGELINE GALA Merida, Yucatan, Mexico The Wait We have been ousted from the streets, so we are creating scenarios that we never imagined before. We’re creating our own spotlights because sometimes we feel we’re disappearing from the fabric of our universe. We are waiting for someone to validate our existence.

We’re talking to ourselves, we ask, what happened?

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JEAN M. DUFFY Hope Valley, Rhode Island, USA Isolation My great niece Amelia, who is four and a half, lives 15 minutes from me but it seems a world away! We have had weekly visits since she was born and have a very strong bond. I miss her so much during this quarantine. In my favorite chair we would laugh, snuggle, giggle, sing, read, play, and so much more. Now the chair sits empty and silent without the love we share.

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ALEXANDRA GUNNOE Seattle, Washington, USA On Hold When the pandemic first hit Seattle, my 6-year-old daughter, Dylan (who has a heart condition) came down with a high fever and cough. The emergency rooms were filling up. When I called for help, Dylan’s cardiologist told me to call her primary care doctor, who told me to call her cardiologist‌who told me to call her primary care doctor. We were stuck in a loop, and it was a surreal moment to realize that no one knew what to do. We were alone. My goal was to create an image that captured the loneliness, despair, and powerlessness I felt while trying to keep my daughter safe.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Covid Wallpaper To construct this image, I first created a Covid-19 themed repeating print by illustrating elements of the virus in watercolor pencil. I scanned my illustrations, and digitally manipulated them to form wallpaper, allowing the print to cover the spare white walls and begin to creep around the corner. The virus seems as if it has found its way in, and has begun to take over an unsuspecting place. This image illustrates my own anxiety, and my urgent need to protect my home and those who live in it.

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ARIEL LUSCO Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Dance Class An only child, my granddaughter has been truly suffering during the epidemic from lack of play with other children. As an attempt to alleviate some of her feelings of isolation, she participates in a virtual dance class each week.

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MCKENZIE STOTT Prineville, Oregon, USA Duck, Duck, Crab For some of us intimacy is in our imaginary beliefs, our interpretations, and the ways in which we replace human contact with the meanderings of our creative mind. We are the interactions we envision, imagine or manifest, and those gestures of the soul show up in all forms and across all faces. What a beautiful world to fill with ideas of grandeur, tickles from crabs, and whispers from a duck.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Meditation While under quarantine, I began taking contemplative walks through my home, asking myself to pay special attention, to heighten awareness, and appreciate the beauty of the things within these walls. This photograph is evidence of the practice of walking meditation, keen observation, spontaneous curation, and joyful realization.

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BRENDA SPIELMANN Toronto, Ontario, Canada Hope I took this photograph while the sun was hitting a disco ball and my son’s hand was trying to catch the light.

During this pandemic we have experienced an array of emotions, hope, despondency, depression, sadness, loss, elation, calm, etc. When this moment happened it gave me the feeling of hope, the opened hand ready to receive the light.

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LESLIE GRANDA-HILL Montclair, New Jersey, USA Healing I saw an image of prayer flags placed on trees by Monks. It made me think of the significance of trees and how they symbolize the interconnectedness of everything. Images of those I’ve lost, from cancer, suicide, Covid19, etc., represent the strength I’ve gained from knowing them. Just as the trees are strong through storms and still stand and grow, my memories of these loving souls are my roots.

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LORI MARTINEZ Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Childlike Faith As I was sweeping the floor in my bedroom I looked up to see my little girl reaching up to touch the sparkling dust particles swirling in the air with such innocent joy and wonder. The moment was a pure depiction for me of my own soul searching for the light in the midst of one of the darkest seasons I have experienced. If we keep reaching, with childlike trust and faith, we will find that there is always hope in the darkness.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Outside In This image illustrates the outside creeping in. My two boys are hidden from the world, but only momentarily.

To create this image, I made a composite, layering together elements of the interior of our home, and our back yard. The wallpaper is a floral pattern with Covid-19 virus and red blood cell illustrations. This photograph details my desire to hold on to the safety and togetherness we have now, if just for a little longer.

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TAMMY SWAREK El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Choices As quarantine restrictions began being lifted, I worried it was too soon. The world outside looked the same as before the virus, but no one really knew what was in store. This piece represents my struggle with the decision to resume life as normal, or stay in the safety of my home.

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TAMMY SWAREK El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Insomnia As coronavirus cases climbed, I found myself impulsively checking what my local number of cases had risen to. Not able to sleep, I would grab my nearest device as if it was somehow helping me keep control of what was happening. These images explore my relationship with technology during in those moments.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Safe Mode I created this photograph while experimenting with my iPad, fabricating optical illusions by pairing images on the illuminated screen with real-time subjects. In this piece, I wanted to address the new and shifting role of electronic devices in our life under lockdown, the loss of physical proximity, and lack of human touch.

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LESLIE GRANDA-HILL Montclair, New Jersey, USA Suspended The time we have spent in quarantine has left many of us feeling unsettled and without our sense of security. In this photo my granddaughter portrays my own worry and lack of knowing how and when things will be normal again.

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CARRIE TAFOYA-HESS Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Roots and Wings “There are two great gifts we can give our children: One is roots; the other, wings.” – Chinese proverb.

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ANIKKE MYERS Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA Stay Safe This image was made as a very real record of the separation required during quarantine, at odds with the need to continue living life, and fear of the multitudes of unknowns. A close friend drove from California to pick up some things. I set them in the yard and we waved through the fence. “Stay Safe” I said, like I’ve said a thousand times since the beginning of the year, because I am at a loss as to what else to say to someone I care for.

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SHADI DUNKIN Austin, Texas, USA The Hardest Decision of All Quarantine, and then slowly re-enter. Hesitation, doubt, uncertainty, fear, desperation. One hand on the door, just in case it needs to be closed.

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ABBEY HEPNER Troy, Illinois, USA Pandemic Snow Globe, Grocery Shopping Pandemic Snow Globes is a series of snow globes for children in the future, depicting the time when COVID-19 spread across the world. The snow globe is a metaphor for a shelter, or perhaps planet earth. Snow globes have a long history as a prefabricated wish image, and as a souvenir (French for “to remember�), allowing us to both reflect and project onto the world in miniature.

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ATHENA CAREY London, England Return, Depart Several weeks into lockdown, and after a long struggle with confusing and frightening logistics, we were finally able to repatriate our son from NY. This is the surreal scene that we found at Heathrow Airport - a nearly bare arrivals board and only one other person waiting for a loved one. In that moment, it struck me that I am now in a very different world to the one I have always known and I have no way of knowing if “normal� will ever return.

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BELLA WEST Shaftesbury, England Transformation Under Quarantine The theme of transformation gave so many avenues from a creative and personal perspective. These mostly came in the form of reflection and discovery - my youngest daughter discovering cooking when she’d never shown any interest. This went hand in hand with us sourcing simplicity with regards available foods and utilising the ordinary during the lockdown. Coming from a family with very little money growing up, we lived like this with harmony. I find the stripping back of how we live fulfilling, and apply the same ethos to photography by using what is at hand.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Me & My Husband I’ll let you guess who is who!

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Support Team

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KELLY FITZSIMMONS Harvard, Massachusetts, USA Sew Blue I love the idea of sewing more than I actually sew. As such, I am often the recipient of sewing boxes from generations before me and have amassed a beautiful collection of threads, patches and other assorted fastenings. Each spool and measuring tape tells a story, and the mid-century blue sewing machine most likely raised hems, repaired tears, and stitched quilts that are still loved today. Since I made this photo, I’ve enlisted this machine to make face masks during the coronavirus pandemic - using vintage fabrics also collected from beloved aunts and grandmothers and breathing new life into them all.

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ATHENA CAREY London, England Re-Entry I am not ready. The UK has begun easing quarantine restrictions and with the warm weather, people are crowding out of their homes to packed beaches and parks. I am not ready. I know that in time I will return but for now, I am not ready.

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CARRIE TAFOYA-HESS Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Womb I wrap myself away from everything. The voice of my mother through the phone is all that connects me to the world outside. Somehow, in isolation, humanity is closer to one another.

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MERRILYN ROMEN Malibu, California, USA Holding Onto My Two Senses After spending too many days and nights in my tiny apartment, I had lost track of time and any sense of normalcy. So I donned a vintage dress, put it on backwards and photographed myself against my white door with a magnolia I had foraged from a tree in my neighbor’s yard. Anxious to escape my four walls, I drove to a nearby farm for food and photographed the lush landscape background, then composited the two images to illustrate the surreal feeling one gets when they emerge out of doors after having been confined inside for too long. The colors appear more saturated, the elements hyper-real, even the feeling of freedom feels somewhat imaginary.

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TAMMY ZURAK Memphis, Tennessee, USA White Paper Flower A challenge was given to “show us what you can do with a white piece of paper.” I adore flowers, and hydrangeas are among my favorites, so replicating this beautiful flower was my undertaking. Interestingly, a search turns up that “hydrangeas expresses the giver’s gratefulness for the recipient’s understanding”, so I leave the understanding up to you!

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TAMMY SWAREK El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Separation Anxiety My mother, with end stage Alzheimer’s, lives at home with me. I promised her I would stay by her side till her last day. When hospitals across the country went to no visitor policies, I was devastated. This piece represents my determination to hold on to her and the fear that I might not be able to fulfill that promise.

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CHRISTAL TREADWELL Dixfield, Maine, USA My Grandfather’s Words After my Grandmother’s passing at 92, I was given her camera collection and letters from my grandfather to her while stationed in Korea in the 1940’s. The letters unveiled a beautiful story of not only written words but photographs shared between them. The camera in my photograph alongside the letters and a handkerchief gifted to my grandmother, that was handcrafted in a village my grandfather visited overseas, told a lovely story. My grandmother would load her camera with film, take half the frames of her surroundings and their new baby girl, send the camera to my grandfather to finish it, develop it and send it back to do it all over again. He saw his first born daughter for the first time through these photographs shared between the two of them. My mother met my grandfather for the first time at 6 months old. He said he felt he knew her because of all the photographs he had cherished of her. It’s amazing - the power of one little camera.

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DEB KREIMBORG Highland Village, Texas, USA Last Embrace I find such beauty in the creative process; I’m never quite sure of where it will lead me. In the midst of self-isolation, an idea is sparked as I hold the old and parched horns in my hands and place them on the earthen clay remembering our last embrace. I hold on to the faded fragrance of love and the longing to see you again.

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KIMBERLEY LEE Haines City, Florida, USA Madame Isolation Transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary - In my art, I like to capture the beauty and magic in the ordinary - people, objects, places and things that we interact with but may sometimes overlook because of our hectic lives - envisioning new purpose with a connection to our past. I feel that by transforming objects and people with light and shadow and by looking for the hidden meaning in things, we discover the simplicity of our lives and the objects around us. For this image, I wanted to capture the feeling of the old Rococo portraits of the eighteenth century but using things that I could find around the house. I constructed the dress out of an old bedsheet, and the bodice was constructed from the accordion-style paper of an old air filter.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Second Wave Constructing this scene out of folded paper, I wanted to illustrate the unsettling idea that we should risk our lives for the sake of the economy; checkout conveyor belts leading to hospital beds.

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ROCIO VILLANUEVA Guatemala City, Guatemala The Automaton I’m trying to recreate the meaning of confinement with the help of technology of these days. Those little gadgets that continuously stay in our hands are our window to the world. Cell phones misinform or teach the right thing. They communicate and bring our loved ones who are far away, but also take us away from those who are close. They shorten distances but isolate us. I have created a character that is talking to herself, only hearing herself, caught in a loop; in isolation and loneliness. The third can wrapped in the waist is the only link to the outside world that is currently out of order.

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LESLIE GRANDA-HILL Montclair, New Jersey, USA Wild Inside Spring 2020 brought social isolation and children being confined to their homes for extended periods of time. Easter came and went without any sign of the quarantine being lifted. My granddaughter models our feeling of being trapped inside and wanting to be free.

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AFTON WARRICK Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Handle with Care It’s the nature of children to transform the simplest objects with their imagination. In these unprecedented times, adults feel the solitude of confinement. They struggle to suppress the urge to suddenly escape from hiding, if only for the reassurance that their absence was noticed. I hint at the delicate nature of children, who are too innocent to realize the danger outside their sheltered space.

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PAMELA KORMAN Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Untitled The week before my area began its lockdown, I spent time stocking up on necessities, knowing there would be six adults in our house and not knowing how easy it would be to get food over the coming weeks. We had yet to understand the fullness of who would become our country’s essential workforce. For this photograph, I constructed a dress from plastic grocery bags to consider the divide between the white-collar worker, safe at home and the blue-collar worker, heroically putting themselves at risk on the front lines to keep our country running. The carefully crafted detailing of the art object invites the viewer to understand and examine their own perspectives about how our society values people and things.

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JEAN M. DUFFY Hope Valley, Rhode Island, USA Real Not Real.

I thought I would make a composition by imagining the subject of apples onto the flat cloth apron with embroidered apples and blend the two together as a still life. Real not real.

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MARTHA MURRAY San Antonio, Texas, USA Suspended To create this image, I photographed some dead roses through a bag of water backlit against a window. They appear to be in a state of suspended animation, caught in a moment in time like insects in amber, adrift in an environment with no control. This photograph expresses my feelings of helplessness and limbo in living through this pandemic.

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KIM SAYRE Grass Valley, California, USA Spoonful of Souls I believe that certain “things� are imbued with a measure of the souls of hands that have held it.

Some things have one soul connection, like this substrate beneath the subject, my own cookie sheet, and some have many, like these silver spoons from an estate sale at a house built in the mid 1800’s in the tiny gold mining town where I live. I imagine the family dinners, in celebration and mourning, that are infused in the silver. I celebrate the patina of lives lived, and add my loving soul fragment to the collective, reminding us that we are never truly alone, even in times of quarantine.

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JUDITH BARAT Santa Barbara, California, USA Honeycomb Creating one image from many allows me to construct a one of a kind story for the viewer. I take real images out of their environment and bring them into Photoshop where, after much experimentation and work, I composite them into one image where my story comes to life. The viewer is left to his or her own interpretation of my work.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Hair Ice Cream In my work, I revisit themes of DNA, the human trace, and evidence of life. Human hair fascinates me in this way, and I enjoy experimenting with it sculpturally. For this photograph, I needle-felted a ball of hair collected from my hair brush, and paired it with a child-sized ice cream cone. I love to play with sensory experience and perception, to elicit strong reactions by simply pairing objects in unusual ways. I felt this image was well suited to the discomfort, surrealism, and absurdity of the quarantine experience. Perhaps hair ice cream is the official flavor of the year 2020.

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JENNIFER M KOSKINEN Denver, Colorado, USA Uta Barth Light Viewing Uta Barth’s work validated an insatiable love I’ve had all my life of capturing reflections and simple events of ephemeral light. These images represent a newly liberated installment in that series. They were each captured with my iphone in early morning light as it reflected from urban surfaces and bounced into my studio apartment.

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MEGANNE HUETT Virginia Beach, Virgina, USA Veins of Communication For this photograph, I used a paper map, gold spray paint and red thread to explore the lines of communication throughout the 2020 pandemic. The red lines of communication not only show the responsiveness between cell towers but the blood lines between each person doing their best to stay connected. The sky overlay reassures that no matter where we all are, we are unified under one sky.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA iPhone IV For this photograph, I created a medical IV using household tape and an iPhone charging cord. I’m exploring a new, evolving dependence on technology, one that is morphing and transforming daily as we collectively shelter in place. I’m also probing into the role of technology in escape, pain relief, even sustenance, provision, and nourishment.

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DEB KREIMBORG Highland Village, Texas, USA Treasures Tears flow as I hold each tarnished silver piece gathering dust‌my baby cup, parts of a once polished tea set, and the gravy bowl, a reminder of every holiday, family dinner. Time stands still as I hold each item, grateful my very social mom watches from heaven. The virus like the flower will wither away but for now I hold on to the treasures of my childhood.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Remember Your Name Is...

To create this image, I used the cyanotype process to create a print of a photo from my father’s childhood, taken by my grandfather, Bob Obenhaus. To prepare the paper, I applied the developing chemicals using a spray bottle. This allowed for an unevenly developed image, depicting the way the brain holds onto some details but not all.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Feeling Blue With my smartphone, I captured and manipulated this image of forsythia using Instagram, creating the illusion of a cyanotype print.

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ASHLEY ALLEN Golden, Colorado, USA Digital Body

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Autoimmune diseases are sometimes called an “invisible disease.” A chronic illness that impacts your life but when people see you, they may not even know. There isn’t usually a physical indication or cognitive “clue” that you are sick. For my 4 year old son and I, technology saves our lives every day. We both have type 1 diabetes where our immune systems have attacked our pancreases and they no longer work. We have to take insulin to survive and while we could take multiple injections everyday, we both have insulin pumps that give us a continual delivery of insulin. We also wear a device called a “Continuous Glucose Monitor” that helps track the pattern of our blood sugar so we have to test our actual blood less frequently. Everyday technology gives us peace of mind and our lives. I photographed a series of flowers and collaged them to create a soft embracing background. I made a silhouette of my son and I to accent our devices that are normally hidden.

ATHENA CAREY London, England Inspiration I have been feeling inspired by everything lately and then by absolutely nothing. It’s an unsettlingly bipolar period of creativity for me. I am torn between feeling both distracted and anxious while being gratefully safe. I am without a head but full of light.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA Julia Cyanotype print developed from a film negative layered with ferns.

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JENNIFER M KOSKINEN Denver, Colorado, USA Ordinary, Extraordinary Water Ordinary water accomplishes extraordinary visual tricks without most of us ever noticing: luminous reflection, refraction and capillary action. Focusing on capturing and layering these qualities -- sunlight through raindrops and the city warped and flipped upside down in a goblet full of water -- invites an extraordinary shift of perception. It also strikes me as extraordinary that we can capture and edit images like this using nothing more than a phone, an ordinary gadget we used solely for communication barely two decades ago.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Elk Spine on a Cookie Sheet I found this single piece of an Elk’s spine in the mountains of Colorado while teaching a workshop a number of years ago. I found a new appreciation for it while under quarantine, as I became more acutely aware of the everyday wonder that surrounds us--things we take for granted when the world is moving at usual speed. I photographed the piece on our most weathered cookie sheet. Both the spine and cookie sheet show evidence of life lived, a theme I revisit time and time again in my work.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Tiny Rocking Chair To make this photograph, I simply reframed a much-loved old object. By pulling this doll-sized rocking chair out of its usual surroundings and re-contextualizing it, I was able to breathe new life into it, re-define it, and play with perception. The scale becomes slightly ambiguous, as does the narrative. The image is quite cold and isolated, and speaks to the loneliness and separation endured by so many during lockdown.

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KIMBERLY DOBOSZ Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA Dark Night of the Soul This image illustrates my dark night of the soul, a difficult transition as my beliefs about the true safety of my family in the world was thrown into question during this pandemic. I constructed this self-portrait while waiting on the phone in an absolute panic for the news of a loved one...did they test positive or negative? Then, I layered duplicate yet fragmented versions of myself in color to represent disconnection and flickering faith.

I am exploring ideas of the disintegration of the life we once lived, yet holding on to some intangible hope.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Tally While under quarantine, I have spent some time experimenting with varied methods of mark-making, in preparation for a large scale project. I find the experience very rhythmic and meditative. As I make thousands of tiny marks on with ink on paper, my mind is free to relax and wander into new territory, and conjure up new ideas. Once I filled this sheet of paper, I paired it with a miniature mask I constructed out of white paper. Immediately, the meaning shifted. The marks became a running tally. Ten thousand and counting.

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OLGA ŽAMETRA Ikast, Midtjylland, Denmark Spiritual Re-Birth Finding myself uncomfortable under the cold bed sheets on my early morning, I dived into my quarantine thoughts. Following amputation of my daily creative routine, I see myself jumping into a journey of healing and transformation, where I will discover my wandering mind again.

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AMY PARISH-JONES Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA The Hair That is Out of Place This is really a simple photo of how my heart felt during the quarantine. My youngest daughter was living in the UAE, and we were uncertain about how we could get her home with travel restrictions. Her absence, when the rest of my family was around me, was unsettling and she was out of place. This doll was her temporary surrogate.

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EVANGELINE GALA Merida Yucatan, Mexico Self Portrait 2020 When the quarantine was new, in a very perverse way I felt the universe was giving me the opportunity to stay put to learn and practice all the things I had put on hold. I felt I had electricity in my brain, connecting thoughts to actions.

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RHONDDA SCOTT Brisbane, Australia Measured Time. Measured in increments. Slipping in and out of our control. Do we dare to dream again? To create this, I experimented with my iPad, iPhone, and Fujifilm xPro 3 on vintage music paper.

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TARA DENNY Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA Forget Me Not Forget me nots are always a reminder of my mother, who loves them because they remind her of my grandmother who also loved them. They are a connection to family for me.

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LESLIE GRANDA-HILL Montclair, New Jersey, USA Staying Safe How in the world can we keep our family safe?! For this photo, I wanted to depict the feeling that I wanted to protect everyone in my family in an all-encompassing way. I sewed a large mask and used a dollhouse to symbolize the feelings I have to protect my loved ones during this pandemic.

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KELLY FITZSIMMONS Harvard, Massachusetts, USA Hush Money As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread worldwide, so do calls for reopening the economy and getting back to business as usual. This image represents my personal feelings: that money trumps lives. I understand and appreciate the delicate balance, but fear that impatience and greed will have devastating and irreversible impact. I hope this image will encourage the viewer to think about the value of human life.

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STEPHANIE ACAR Jacksonville, Florida, USA Patina Stuck at home during COVID quarantine and unable to photograph people as I love to do, I was facing the challenge of still creating art using what I had at home. I scattered wildflowers gathered from my backyard along with mustard seed from my spice cabinet against the background of my most-worn cookie sheet. I photographed and edited this image with a smartphone.

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BRENDA SPIELMANN Toronto, Ontario, Canada Pyramid and Things Light and shadow are the language of photography. For this photograph, I used a hand mirror while the sun shone onto a black board, to create different shapes. It made me think of pyramids and sundials.

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LESLIE CASTRO Corpus Christi, Texas, USA Fragility Flesh toned canvas, suspended Mimosa Strigillosa in muted black, accentuating the delicate lines and emphasizing the vulnerable nature of the organic form.

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RHONDDA SCOTT Brisbane, Australia The Perfect Poison During quarantine everyone focussed on “clean and germ free.� We soaped and sprayed our hands, our homes, and our food. People fought in supermarkets over sanitizer and sprays. We all stocked up on the perfect poison. This was photographed on Fujifilm xPro 3, using natural light.

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WENDY VANCE Schertz, Texas, USA Corona Delivery This photograph represents my first surreal moment during the pandemic. I remember anxiously looking out the window at the package delivered to my front porch. I feared the virus had been delivered to my front door and was daring me to invite it into my home - my safe space. To create this photograph, I glued Mountain Laurel seeds to an unopened Amazon box to represent the presence of the Corona virus.

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JACQUELYN CYNKAR Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Extraordinary Fork This photograph symbolizes an invitation for transformation. As the COVID19 pandemic brought fear and uncertainty, I’ve desired to reshape concerns into something new. This illustration conveys a lack of permanence for any object or symbolic feeling; an opportunity to walk away from previous function and reemerge – beautifully, quieter and perhaps with hope. Here is a fork transformed. Released of its responsibility and freed, into art. This photograph was taken in natural light and digitally overlaid with a cookie sheet image to accentuate both its previous relationship to food and the current messiness of the quarantine.

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CARRIE TAFOYA-HESS Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Transparent Consumer culture shields us from the possibility of scarcity. COVID-19 is a reminder of our privilege and also a threat to our comfort. Some pantries stay empty.

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JEAN M. DUFFY Hope Valley, Rhode Island, USA Noise, Voices, Talking Heads Talk, Talk, Talk.

Truth, Lies, Misinformation.

New Vocabulary, New Meaning.

Pandemic, Covid 19, Gloves, Masks, Doctor Fauci.

TV devoid of pleasure.

I am a captive of the news!

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Safe Mode In this image, I am referencing the new face of identity for our children, the virtual classroom, virtual friendships, and a virtual world.

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TAMMY SWAREK El Dorado, Arkansas, USA Take My Hand This is an earlier image of mine that I pulled up on my iPad. I placed a piece of wax paper over the surface and photographed through it.

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MCKENZIE STOTT Prineville, Oregon, USA Intimacy Farewell “Google, how do I connect to my heart?� is what I typed in one day during quarantine. The loss of connection to oneself due to the meanderings of technological fog has become an epidemic just like Covid-19. Intimacy blocked by a usb cable. With all of our isolation will we eventually find the map back to our pink and pulsating hearts or will we dive into the soul of distraction?

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DEB KREIMBORG Highland Village, Texas, USA An Altar I gather all the monochromatic items I can find as I try and escape the chaos and confusion that surrounds me. As I put the bits and pieces together I grab my camera and realize‌ I have created an altar, a place for my soul to rest as each breath becomes a prayer.

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SHADI DUNKIN Austin, Texas, USA The Paper Room Created from a blank piece of paper. A room, inviting and warm. To create is to live.

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ROCIO VILLANUEVA Guatemala City, Guatemala Faith In this picture, I created a ritual dance, a ceremony, conjuring the spirits in dance worship. The central figure, The Foot, represents the celebration of the human being and our survival. I have rendered it as a marble altar with a sacrificial surface on top, and a heavenly light shining down on it, making it appear holy. The veiled faces are masking their identity, out of shame, or fear. The green wreaths and bouquets represent signs of life, and hope; evidence of new growth in a barren land. Regarding the wardrobe, I have collected many old dresses and hats, some inherited from my grandmother’s attic. With them, I try to create characters related to a timeless and magical environment in the photographs.

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ROCIO VILLANUEVA Guatemala City, Guatemala Freedom I see the new way of living with many difficulties and deficiencies. Many of the fundamental freedoms as individuals and as a society, now are restricted or non-existent. So let us learn to live in a different way, where we will detach from material things. I recreate a character that is trying to escape from his reality, using his imagination and creativity. Taking a little act of faith in himself represented in the red feather-like talisman from his soul.

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TARA DENNY Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA Pets Are Forever During the beginning of the pandemic, many of the animal rescues I work with reported a large number of people giving up their pets out of fear they could not care for them during these uncertain times. I created this image to remind people that pets are not disposable.

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SHADI DUNKIN Austin, Texas, USA Broken Giant A Cecropia Moth. Although common, they are seldom seen because of their short life span. I photographed this moth on a well-used cookie sheet. Moments are fleeting. I am able to examine this beauty only after life has left its fuzzy body.

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TARA DENNY Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA Boxed In I built this little scene from an amazon box and craft paper. I thought the “toilet paper curtains� were a nice touch considering it was the ONE thing nobody could find in the stores at the time this was created.

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ASHLEY ALLEN Golden, Colorado, USA Domestic Imprint A global pandemic has begun; it has quarantined us to our home. In a world of chaos and unknown our home is a place of familiarity and comfort. The longer we are here the longer it feels like we’ve never been anywhere else. These things, these walls, are the only thing we have ever known. Our home holds us, protects us, it is us. Re-emergence into the outside world is a great unknown - we do not even know if anything exists beyond this home. As I used a traditional “family portrait” pose, to mark the time. We are in the in-between of before Covid-19 and after Covid-19. I used the pattern originally from my shirt (mother) to “imprint” my family and our home and to show our connections.

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DEB KREIMBORG Highland Village, Texas, USA Faith in the Darkness Faith in the Darkness is where I go as the virus darkens our churches but cannot extinguish the light. I am drawn to His holy blue light that symbolizes the healing power of our God as I surrender to what I cannot see. His glory grows ever amber as the silver cross on the bible allows me to be guided by His word.

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JENNIFER THORESON Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Playthings This image was made during an afternoon of play, where I gifted myself time to simply rediscover ordinary materials in my home, combine them in unusual ways, and allow free improvisation. I created this photograph by taping torn, crinkled wax paper to our front window, abstracting the desert landscape beyond it. I taped a single leaf underneath the paper, and was delighted with the transformation and shift in perception such a simple combination created.

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EVANGELINE GALA Merida Yucatan, Mexico Backyard Gazing I take it as a gift - just walking out to my yard getting lost, looking into the random objects that I have placed without a plan, just to look at them and let them be. This is a Christmas star that began dancing before my eyes in the middle of a hot windy summer day.

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ATHENA CAREY London, England Memory Memory is difficult for me. On most days I try to live in my present and plan for the future to avoid the disturbing mĂŠlange of happiness, pain, and confusion created by memories of my past. With this image, I am metaphorically comparing my experience of memory to that of being lost in a familiar forest. As I wander through, disorientated, I am confronted with beauty, wonder, pain, and fear.

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SHÄ€NA EINHORN Long Island, New York, USA Straddling Worlds Contemplating re-entry awakened all the latent anxieties that the quarantine mysteriously had quieted. While sitting on my terrace, I began studying the space around me, and realized, due to privacy concerns, I had never fully raised the blinds on the door. Viewing my apartment from this vantage point opened new possibilities of creating dynamic work utilizing both the interior and exterior simultaneously. This picture attempts to express the ambivalence about wanting the safety of home versus the longing to be out in the world with others.

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MEREDITH SCHWALL Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Worn Uncertainty Afoot Transform. Transpose. Water and a paintbrush, a dilapidating concrete slab in my front yard, and my foot, were all used to create this image. I wanted to express my unease about having to quarantine at home and practice social distancing, as well as my newfound fears of a global crisis that my family and I have never had to live through. It was the beginning of the unknown.

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RAINA STINSON Goult, France The Covid-Line When I reflect on my new normal after two months of a strict quarantine in France, due to Covid-19, I think my clothesline says it all.

I feel a strong emphasis on the importance of covering up and hiding to keep myself safe. These items on my clothesline protect the most vulnerable parts of my body. I never thought that adding a mask to my face would be a necessary daily item to my fashion statement.

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COURTNEY VERNIER Little Elm, Texas, USA We Got A Package!

Yesterday I noticed that since quarantine began, all of the charges on my credit card were for Amazon and shortly thereafter, my son excitedly brought me a package that he’d retrieved from the porch. Under the expectant eyes of two children and a husband, I proceeded to open the package containing deodorant and baby socks, disappointment was palpable. I created this image because online shopping has become a staple of our quarantine existence and even though the majority of what we receive amounts to household basics, hope springs eternal for my four year old and he greets every delivery as if it’s his birthday. I chose the flying shopping cart because even after years of using Amazon Prime, it still feels kind of magical to me that with a few clicks I can get most of what I need delivered to my doorstep in a matter of hours, pandemic notwithstanding.

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JOSHUA WHITE West Jefferson, North Carolina, USA Paper No. 30 Photography has always been a tool capable of transmuting profane reality into sacred contemplation. Before 2020, it would have been unimaginable to me that I would be searching multiple stores to find a roll of toilet paper, and yet I made that trip more than once in the past few months. This image is part of a larger series of object studies of that humble paper many of us use every day but don’t think about until it has disappeared. I think that has something to do with life.

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ANN PALLESEN Seattle, Washington, USA Prism, Lace, Shadow I wandered through my house early in the morning looking for areas where the light was falling. I was delighted to discover a lace shadow from the curtains on the side of my couch. I observed and captured the light partially through a prism in these fleeting moments.

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RENE TREECE ROBERTS Asheville, North Carolina, USA T Togethering, with my daughter. We were taking in the Spring blooms while staying home for weeks in April. We often lay in the flowers in the Spring. They could not have come at a better time in 2020.

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CARYLYN L. CRAWFORD Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA BackyardTree.03.2020 BackyardTree stands in solidarity with nature, breathing in the life force that protects me and guides me. The textural layering allows this image to radiate motion while capturing the stillness of this moment we are all in. Breathe in, breathe out; God is in control.

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HELEN MAKADIA Newton, Massachusetts, USA Phasing In Slowly For this image I wanted to take this simple cardboard box challenge and apply it to Coronavirus. This image was created in May 2020, during a time of general uncertainty, particularly around the phases explored by local and state government for re-entry. I began creating this image with a delicate, dry hydrangea and worked to simulate light peeking through the top of a cardboard lightbox, illuminating the petals, softly. The hydrangea remains in darkness despite the light that comes through.

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ROXANNE BAPPE Zearing, Iowa, USA Lift Me Up As wings are meant for flight, this photograph signifies lifting up my mind and heart given our current state of social distancing. This experience forced me to withdraw from established routines, yet provides time for a closer look at the details that surround me.

I chose complementary colors for the shadows and highlights as they represent the ways in which my life (and likely yours) has been jerked to the opposite side of the spectrum.

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AURORA DE LUCA Winchester, Massachusetts, USA Blur Photography is more than a two dimensional image. The confluence of emotions, memories, time, and context represent snippets of life’s journey. On this journey, quarantine has warped our sense of normal. And although in this moment we can discover an abundance of sliver linings, in the end, it might all be a blur.

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TIFFANY MEDRANO Foster, Rhode Island, USA What’s Your Jam

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LESLIE GRANDA-HILL Montclair, New Jersey, USA Mask Everyone is now wearing a mask. Before Covid19 I photographed many celebrations where wearing masks was common. Now the meaning of a face mask has changed.

It still covers our face, our feelings, and makes it hard to convey our emotions, and perhaps it saves our lives.

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ROBIN GANSLE Dallas, Texas, USA Paw My gift to the world: a chonky hind paw on tin, in black and white. There is no deeper meaning here, it is just a good boy. A very good boy.

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TAMMY ZURAK Memphis, Tennessee, USA Eating Clean Food is life-sustaining. However, would you eat food that you knew had been handled hours earlier by someone who was sick with a deadly virus? Early in the pandemic, at the time this image was made, cleaning of food packaging was a controversial topic. What lengths might you go to in order to prevent your family’s death?

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A NN PA L L E S EN Ann Pallesen is a Seattle-based artist and creative professional with extensive experience in the fine art and nonprofit arena. She received her BFA from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins concentrating in photography.

Previously, she served as the Gallery Director of Photographic Center Northwest (PCNW) in Seattle for nearly two decades where she produced over 150 exhibitions with emerging and renowned artists. In addition, she served as a juror for numerous exhibitions in the NW region including Contemporary Northwest Women Photographers: Frye Art Museum; Engage your World—Hipstamatic Show: Seattle Design Festival; 37th Annual National Photography Exhibition: Larson Gallery, Yakima. In 2014, Pallesen curated a traveling exhibition entitled Richard Renaldi—Touching Strangers for Aperture Foundation in NY. She has been a reviewer at numerous portfolio review events around the country including Photolucida, Fotofest, and Review Santa Fe. Pallesen has exhibited her work nationally at Benham Gallery, Photo LA, Gallery 291, and Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, and she delivered an artist lecture about her photographs at the Portland Art Museum in 2016. Her commitment to collaboration, advocacy for artists, and building community defines her career. Ann is now Gallery Associate of Harris Harvey Gallery.

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S TAT E M E N T I initially was invited to join the Photography Under Quarantine group as a photographer by Jennifer Thoreson.

I had recently been laid off from my job in a gallery due to COVID-19 and put on stand by. I was working very part-time from home and feeling a lot of the uncertainties that many were experiencing at that time, including isolation and cabin fever. A trip to the grocery store was the big outside adventure to practice “mask wearing” and “social distancing.” It was a surreal new reality.

Thoreson provided an outlet for this confusion and steered it in thought provoking ways. I was inspired by the innovative images she was profusely producing as examples of how to push one’s creativity around themes of COVID-19. Her imagery absolutely stunned me. So many photographers followed suit and contributed unique conceptual work with fresh perspectives around health, family and shelter. It was a profound virtual space to find inspiration. The first few themes I personally experimented with were the Ten Minute Challenges – “cookie sheet,” “single color still life,” “Uta Barth light,” and “wax paper.” These challenges brought a new sense of thrill to my home environment and a connection to a new creative community. The group provided a space to experience quarantine with others and a sense of support.

During this time, I was offered the privilege to jury the catalog. Looking at photographs and culling imagery is something I’ve practiced for over twenty years. I was delighted to review all of the themes, and read the personal stories and comments from remarkable photographers from around the globe. In this process I looked for images that not only described familiar aspects of being quarantined, but also chose ones that struck a chord, or were finely executed. Images of beauty, hope and emotion were also intertwined, reminding us of the simplicities in everyday life. When else could a photograph of a roll of toilet paper created through the wet plate collodion process, carry so much weight, and need no further explanation? This photograph by Joshua White was elegantly composed and light hearted. A few other notable highlights include a snow globe with two people passing in a grocery store with their loaded carts by Abbey Hepner; a miniature house wearing a face mask in a grassy environment by Leslie Granda-Hill; and silhouettes of a mother and son with their common autoimmune medical devices against a floral background by Ashley Allen. Last, but not least, a poignant composite by Jean Duffy of a grid of four TV screens with relevant news coverage and the new zoom format for talk shows at home is one all too familiar for the records. As a whole, these images serve as a creative collective and meaningful time capsule peering into an unprecedented chapter of our history as a pandemic unfolds. Be well, stay safe.

— Ann Pallesen, Independent Curator, Seattle, Washington

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JENNIFER B. THORESON JenniferB.Thoresonis a photographer, teacher, lecturer, and mother of two boys who lives and works in Albuquerque, NM. She holds an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Her work is heavily metaphorical, and delves into the nuances of human relationships, human fragility, and the ephemeral, temporary nature of human life. Through her exploration of questions surrounding faith and religious practices, she critically conceptualizes different themes to produce images rich in allegory, engaging with her viewers as they question and explore the themes for themselves.

The complexity of her work is rooted in her practice. She carefully orchestrates each image by manipulating symbolic materials, constructing site specific installations and sculptures, and meticulously staging every scene to imbue each element, from the smallest to the largest, with meaning and significance. The elements and spaces she fabricates and captures in her images play as important a role in her art as the finished photographs themselves.

Jennifer’s work has gained an international audience through inclusion in museum and gallery exhibitions, spanning the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Russia, Australia, France, Switzerland, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom. Her work is held in museum collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Musee de l’Elysee, Switzerland; and has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Houston Center for Photography (solo), the Blue Sky Gallery (solo), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL (group). In addition, her work has been published worldwide, in well-known publications, including Black and White Magazine, Diffusion Magazine, and Installation Magazine. In 2011, a monograph of her work, entitled Medic, was published.

Awards include Photo Star Award (Kaunas, Lithuania); International Center of Photography (ICP) Leadership Medallion; Photolucida Book Award; Residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute, and the Franks Memorial Grant.

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S TAT E M E N T Lockdown. Shelter in Place.

Within just two days, there were food shortages. Meats, milk, diapers, and paper products were counted and rationed. Soon, there were illustrated paths to follow while grocery shopping, and stores were littered with hand-drawn warning signs on poster board. A six-foot distance rule was put into practice. There was dread in proximity, we were afraid to take a breath when passing someone on the hiking trail. I held my breath to put gas in the car. When we drove through our neighborhood, people were walking their dogs while wearing masks and rubber gloves. My four-year-old child had learned the terms ‘lockdown, quarantine, and social distancing’ and was drawing pictures of the corona virus. I stood often at our kitchen windows, gazing outward at the sidewalks, and beyond them, the mountains. I stood there the week before, gazing the same direction, but now—I felt trapped. I was like an inside-out zoo exhibit--the insects and animals were now looking in at me.

I needed a way to calm myself, to keep my mind curious, active, and occupied. I made a new photo album on my phone, and titled it ‘Lockdown.’ I made a decision to become newly aware, and freshly delighted at the things around me; the things that were in my house, and locked down along with me. Before long, I was making snapshots of objects on cookie sheets, still life arrangements of rejected lunch food and crumpled paper towels, light patterns on the walls, fingerprints on the windows. From there, I started putting together simple sculptures from items I found newly interesting, pairing together unlikely objects, and setting up simple, surprising narratives. I realized, after I’d accumulated a few dozen photographs, that this strategy was indeed working. I was calmer. I was happier. I decided one afternoon to pose a question on Facebook, and see if anyone wanted to join me in this effort. I started dreaming about a group of like-minded people who could share their creativity, and make images cathartically while the world was under lockdown. People responded. In just a few weeks, the group was comprised of over 500 artists from all over the world. Together, we formed a wombspace for sharing, inventing, releasing…it was a much-needed play space. Because of the community, and the togetherness of this group, my memory of the lockdown is somewhat enchanted. It was laced with anxiety and moments of panic, but there was an undercurrent of inspiration, ingenuity, and joy. I am grateful, and I am encouraged by this splendid evidence of the resilient human spirit. Thank you all for sharing your light.

— Jennifer B. Thoreson, Artist, Albuquerque, New Mexico

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PHOTOGRAPHY UNDER QUARANTINE MARCH-AUGUST, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN ASHLEY CUMMINGS C U R AT O R ANN PALLESEN ORGANIZER JENNIFER THORESON SPECIAL THANKS: C A R Y LY N C R A W F O R D ANIKKE MYERS K I M B E R LY S AY R E COVER IMAGE L E S L I E G R A N D A -H I L L

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