I am a long-time subscriber to Lenscratch, Fine Art Photography Daily. One day I checked their Calls for Entry and came across a call, COVID PICTURES; the purpose was to gather images made during the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic, all to be archived online. Oregon photographer Jennifer Timmer Trail was the creator of this project.
Aline Smithson, founder and editor of Lenscratch, conducted an interview with Ms. Trail regarding COVID PICTURES. As both are far more eloquent than I am, please click on the link below:
lenscratch.com/2021/02/focus-on-covid-covid-pictures
Ms. Trail’s original Call for Entry is below:
https://covidpictures.org/submissions
I submitted four images, all of which were accepted.
To explain, during the period 2016-2020, I have been disturbed by what I have seen happening politically and socially in my country (I’m also Native American, which adds to my discomfort). I thought current events were worse than what I observed of the civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 20th century. I was reminded of the growth of the Fuehrer and the Nazi Party in the Germany of the 1920s and 1930s. Thus, two images reflect that distaste for what I see happening in my country.
The remaining images were inspired by the Charlton Heston movie, The Omega Man (Warner Brothers, 1971). Las Vegas has always seemed like the crowded, flashy, noisy hub of the universe. And then, the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic. I was fascinated by the virtually empty streets, the casinos once brightly lit by occupied rooms now dark, most storefronts dark and locked, and the overall feeling of abandonment. I wanted to wander on foot and photograph this abandonment, this emptiness, but due to my age and overall health, I generally stayed in my vehicle and photographed over the steering wheel. I’ve always been a loner, but this huge sense of abandonment, this emptiness, this darkness, was eerie and unnerving.
My four images can be found at:
https://covidpictures.org/archive-1750-2000
Scroll down until you come to an image of a camouflaged figure standing on two signs across which lies crime scene tape labeled, “SEDITION”. That is the first of my four images.
Thank you.
Stan