As a 19 year old who is new to this whole “adulting” thing, facing a global pandemic in my second year of college was not in my plans. Of course, facing an event as life changing as this one is never written in anybody’s life plans.
For me, what has been the most surreal part of this experience thus far has been seeing the city. The parking garages at my workplace are eerily empty, hand sanitizer stations have magically appeared in lobbies, and the amount of people walking towards the City Creek Mall on a Tuesday afternoon has certainly plummeted.
The problem with my experiences are that they are mine. I can never grasp the full extent in which this pandemic has effected the world. My commute from work to my parents house is short lived. I don’t see what other individuals are experiencing, especially those who work in the health industry, or those who own a small business, or those who have had the virus themselves. The list goes on.
Whenever I feel that I need to better understand the perspective of others, I look to photography. While articles, politics, and statistics are informative, you don’t really feel what is happening around you until you see it with your own eyes. Below are some posts I collected via social medias that allow you to see a global pandemic through someone else’s lens.
Kayla Long / @KLong_0307 via Twitter
4) Here are a few of the photos of a photography series that I’ve been working on to document our city during the Covid-19 pandemic. My focal point of this series is to show the effects of the quarantines on our town: small businesses, sports, school, and social gatherings. pic.twitter.com/1zaieH8EfP
— Kayla Long (@KLong_0307) March 30, 2020
Unknown Photographer / @photographypandemic via Instagram
Jive / @AtJive via Twitter
COVID-19 ghost town. pic.twitter.com/reVQ6MUapi
— Jive (@AtJive) March 29, 2020
Sydni Lane / @inthenow via Instagram
Esme Alaki / @Esmealaki via twitter
San Francisco looks like a town expecting a Hurricane, with storefronts boarded up, and people lining up at stores, while others wander around without any apparent destination or plan, as if propelled by Brownian motion.
Everyone is waiting for Hurricane Covid-19 to crest. pic.twitter.com/XseFzhSuts
— ? Save Our #SOMA ? (@EsmeAlaki) March 30, 2020
Please stay safe, healthy, and practice self care during this uncertain and frightening time. And last but certainly not least, stay home.