Diary of a Pandemic: May 8, 2020
The seventh in a weekly series of curations of images made by Magnum photographers around the world, working and living under varying degrees of social restriction
The COVID-19 outbreak has seen most Magnum photographers restricted in their movements. As part of an ongoing photographer-led initiative, Magnum photographers are sharing information, updates, and new work made in these strange and difficult times.
Each week, we are featuring edits of these images. The images in the first six editions of the diary series were selected by project leader Peter van Agtmael, with Cristina de Middel making these edits from today’s selection onward. Here we share these images alongside personal notes and reflections from Magnum photographers on how they are experiencing the unfolding situation.
New work on the crisis will be shared daily through Magnum Photos’ Instagram feed and Instagram Stories takeovers.
Bruce Gilden
Wappinger Falls, New York, USA. April 11, 2020.
“People with masks grocery shopping during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Martin Parr
Bristol, England, GB. 2020.
“Bansky street art. During the coronavirus outbreak.”
Rafal Milach
Warsaw, Poland. April 30, 2020
“Installation of ‘The Penumbral Age. Art in the Time of Planetary Change’ exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, which has been altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show was supposed to collect new forms of solidarity, empathy and togetherness in the face of the climate crisis.”
Corona crisis. © Zied Ben Romdhane | Magnum Photos
Zied Ben Romdhane
Montreal, Canada. April 23, 2020.
“Corona crisis.”
Alessandra Sanguinetti
Petaluma, California, USA. April 27, 2020.
“We live in the country, so we only notice that the world around us has slowed down when we leave to go grocery shopping. At home there’s another type of quietness, especially at night with our daughter Catalina. Now there’s no more flurry of activity in the evening to get ready for the next day, no alarm clocks, no rushing, no guests, no decisions about what to wear, where to go, what to do, and we can only make plans for the next day.”
Larry Towell
Ontario, Canada. April 19, 2020.
Bruno Barbey
Paris, France. May 4, 2020.
“Coronavirus crisis. Aristide Maillol statue. Jardin des Tuileries.”
Emin Özmen
Istanbul, Turkey. April 1, 2020.
“Since life is suspended in Istanbul; streets are empty; schools, bars, restaurants, stores, cinemas, mosques are closed. There are only a few signs of life in the street and this banner hangs near my home. It gives me a little hope for tomorrow. Can’t wait to fly there.”
Chris Steele-Perkins
East Dulwich, London, GB. April 12, 2020.
“A shadow of a tulip in my garden during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Gregory Halpern
Rochester, New York. April 7, 2020.
“Gregory Halpern documents his children during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Mark Power
Brighton, England, GB. April 2020.
“I’ve been sorting through a box of my late parents’ effects each day, and one discovery was these… love letters from Dad to Mum, while he was away on National Service, just a year after they were married.”
Peter van Agtmael
Maryland, USA. April 18, 2020.
“A normally very busy Route 50 is quiet during the coronavirus (COVID-19) Stay at Home order in Maryland.”
Nanna Heitmann
Pushkino, Russia. April 18, 2020.
“It’s a new silence here. The silence of emptiness. You still hear the noisy metro running though Moscow’s underground and the trains are still working. The voices of people talking to each other and salesmen walking through the wagons have disappeared. Even if there are almost no people on the train, everyone sits covered with a mask by him or herself.”
Lindokuhle Sobekwa
Johannesburg, South Africa. April 20, 2020.
“Rainy day. The townships are always buzzing and hardly quiet, even when faced with COVID-19. I managed to get the quietness of the township when we had rain over the weekend or when we had cops and soldiers who were patrolling. What was also interesting was to see the places that are mostly occupied by humans, but this time, it was only animals that were visible in these spaces. I also visited a graveyard where my father was laid to rest; it was quiet and peaceful there.”
Chien Chi Chang
Graz, Austria. April 22, 2020.
“Self portrait. Home during the Austria lockdown due to the global pandemic COVID-19.”
Jerome Sessini
Mulhouse, Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, France. April 14, 2020.
“The tunnel between the Haut-Rhin and the Vosges.”
Cristina de Middel
Itacaré, Brazil. May 5, 2020.
“I have been thinking about how this pandemic is going to affect our already old routines. How the distances will grow again physically between us and how we will have to rely on the digital to explore, study and understand the new world we have to live in now. These are big ideas and it is also quite ambitious to try and translate them into images without leaving your home.”
Mark Power
Brighton, England, GB. March 2020.
“Sharing whisky with our Polish neighbours through the garden fence in the first few days after lockdown.”
