I have been thinking a lot about how photography can do something worthwhile over the coming weeks. Or more specifically, given my good fortune to have a job that will continue through the current health crisis, I wonder how I can use my photography to do something meaningful. Is there something I can do with my camera that might be useful for somebody beyond me?
Thinking of previous periods of social distress and upheaval, photographers who have gone out and documented their world have, I think, recorded something meaningful. Beyond the famous images, e.g., Lange’s “Migrant Mother,” there are countless less famous photographers who have pointed their cameras at the world around them as it convulsed and was wracked by traumatic events.
It seems that today photographer could produce an incredibly robust record, a record that could be compiled into a useful resource for both our present and the future.
I am only a single person with a camera, but I can document the effects of Covid-19 on my city. So over the coming days and weeks, that is what I will try to do.