During this time of fear and emergency, the likes of which many of us have never experienced before, it can be easy to feel alone, and hopeless. Disconnected from our friends and family, even from mundane tasks like grocery shopping and quick trips to the mall, it can be easy to feel as if our way of life has been unfairly and abruptly disrupted.
People across the globe have complained about feeling lonely and unmotivated, despite the fact that we can and still are connected through the miraculous existence of the Internet. But even I can attest to the fact that despite many of us are surely spending hours upon hours of time skyping or facetiming with friends both near and far, the digital convenience does little to quell the overwhelming emotion that I am adrift at sea, with nothing within view except for the four walls of my own home.
It was by complete accident that during one of my mindless traipses through Instagram that I stumbled upon something that would spark hope in me. Amid the selfies, ads, and memes that grab my attention for less than three and half seconds, was a post one of my high school friends had made consisting of simple self portraits. I marveled at the fact that somehow, she looked at peace.
Through her highlighted story, I discovered that she had submitted photos and was featured in a collage on an Instagram account known as Girls of Isolation, run by the award winning poet Olivia Gatwood. She has written and spoken about a variety of topics such as feminism, coming of age, and true crime. Gatwood began the movement by posting her own photograph, captioned: “self-portrait of a lady in quarantine”, which sparked hundreds of women around the world to send her their own black and white self portraits. The profile also features an inclusive definition of “woman”, extended to nonbinary and queer people, and open to all who “think of the word girl as something that energetically resonates with them”.
self-portrait of a lady in quarantine
A post shared by olivia gatwood (@oliviagatwood) on Mar 30, 2020 at 11:31am PDT
As I scrolled through the feed, I was struck once again by the same emotion I had felt when first viewing my friend’s photos. I realized soon after that the reason I was so drawn to these photos was because I truly felt connected to them, and their subjects. Often taken in intimate settings, such as one’s bedroom, the photos were raw, and displayed these women amidst hobbies and passions close to their heart, and somehow portraying a level of vulnerability unique to this style of portraiture. Needless to say, the photos and their subjects were beautiful and inspiring, as were the loving comments below.
In times as divisive as these, when much of the media and our government seems to be obsessed with finding blame elsewhere, especially within the Asian American community, it is important that we give credit where credit is due to those who are finding ways to connect us all by practicing compassion instead of hate. It can be easy to get swept up in a tide of misinformation and fear, but while we do our due diligence by practicing social distancing and washing our hands, we can also take the time to find unifying factors to bind us together not only as a national community, but as a global one as well. Done correctly, these overwhelmingly tragic times may allow us to feel more connected as a society if we are only open to it.