COVID-19 Coverage
Through assignments for The New York Times, my documentation of the Coronavirus outbreak in the United States was led by a street level study of New York City. Beginning with the initial lockdowns ordered by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo which started March 22 and extended through May, I spent time in neighborhoods throughout the 5 boroughs watching the transformation of city life.
Typically mundane aspects of the city: public transit, grocery stores, streets, sidewalks and parks, were suddenly cast into a new reality. Emptiness, like the virus, quickly spread in concert with silence breaking the normal hum of city life. The new normal began. City sounds were reduced to ambulance sirens, lockdown measures cleared traffic, typically packed sidewalks became socially distanced lines for grocery and drug stores, popular shopping destinations mirrored that of the American rustbelt and a world fashion hub sported a new accessory, the mask.
Uncommon at first, the mask became a jarring visual reminder of the very real possibility of infection and that the virus could be anywhere. More so when masks weren’t required in public, their initial appearance felt symbolic of a collective fear. Ironically, with exposure it became customary, the new normal. The mask and the heavy eyes seen peering out from above them became a reminder of a disease that had blanketed NYC.
