From A Distance

I took the first photograph for this work on April 4, 2020. It was the day after one of my closest friends passed away. Her illness didn't spark the project but when I look at these photographs, I am reminded of my loss at that time. How I couldn't be with her and how we still haven't had any ceremony for her because of the pandemic. My walking or traveling to see friends and strangers, even if from a distance, became a journey of healing; a way to feel connected, feel a little less alone, a reminder of life. I first put a call out on my neighborhood Facebook group page at the beginning of April 2020, during the lockdown, and stopped by 4 homes on that first day of photographing. I posted those to Instagram. The next day, I went to my collaborator's (Lenore Thomas) neighborhood and photographed her and some of her neighbors, posted those to Instagram. That was all it took, after that everyone reached out, asking me to stop by for a portrait. I let the project be led by those who wanted me to come to them. There were definitely some requests I never got to photograph but by the end of the project, I had photographed in front of almost 70 homes. It was a reminder of how much we need community and in person interaction and how difficult isolation can be. One of my last photographs for this project (and the only one outside of the Pittsburgh area) was at my sister's in Princeton after the birth of my niece. That seemed like a natural end to the project, started with a death, ended with a birth.