Drive-by Shootings

It was Claudette’s idea; credit where credit is due. When she first mentioned it, I thought she was being a collaborator on an idea that she thought would ultimately be something creatively significant. During a conversation with some friends across their lawn a few days later, I wondered if Claudette’s intentions weren’t a bit more self-serving when she joked that I was driving her crazy at home.

Her suggestion of visiting family members to take some photographs of them outside their homes resonated but after some consideration I thought it would be better representative of feelings about what was happening if I included people from a slightly broader social circle; friends and neighbors as well as family members.

We were about two weeks into our isolation tied to the government directives surrounding the COVID 19 pandemic and while we were not impacted too severely in our own routines, we knew others were feeling quite differently vis-à-vis their daily schedules. There was a big upheaval all at once – not working or working from home; kids at home due to school closures; businesses shuttered; social and sporting activities cancelled; and so on.

While photographs can tell a story by themselves, I thought it would be more illuminating to pose some questions for those participating in the photographs to get a better idea as to how folks were dealing with those official directives to socially (physically) distance themselves from one another.

Humans are, by nature, social beings and there seems to be agreement that isolation is detrimental to the human condition. But Claudette and I, despite feeling down at times about what was going on, found some good news stories about positive things that were occurring. We thought it would be interesting to hear what folks might offer up as personal outcomes tied to things that were happening.

Drive-by Shootings is a personal edition of my AMP magazine showing a collection of images of some of the people in our social circle accompanied by some of their own words about how they are feeling during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic crisis.

The magazine was eventually part of an exhibition at the local Helson Gallery highlighting work that various creatives in the community had created in the first few months of the pandemic.  Called Creative Outlets it was on display in the fall of 2020.

Many have covered what’s going on in with the pandemic in 2020. This was my take.