In 2020 at the onset of Covid -19 I started traveling East. There was always more east of where I was, so I kept going. Resisting the isolation and chaos originating from conflicting information about an unimaginable global pandemic led me to the road. Gathering a Ford Explorer, a pop-up tent and passage on a partially populated ocean liner I moved to outdoor space for the freedom from government lockdowns. Tragedies happened, people got ill and died, we suffered and got older. Vaccines slowed the spread of the contagion, but nothing stopped the virus’ unfolding. In some instances, my direction was altered and even halted, but I did not give up my movement. Outdoors became my living room, office, kitchen and gym; my camera my companion and chronicler of the experience.

Segue celebrates the gift of returning to independent, unrestricted movement and thought. The presentation of the images mirrors my activity; the transition without interruption from one place to another. The work is seven 4.5” x  62” strips arranged in a grid; the size of the total piece is 42”x 65”. Each segment contains 11 photographs for a total of 77 images. The sections evoke strips of film unwinding from a spool. I used the taxonomy of color to organize the images using tone to communicate the essence of this universal experience. This created 7 chapters: Haze, Sage, Cinnabar, Vivid, Cetacean, Saffron and Raven. 

The images explore the themes of forced seclusion. They project alienation due to people’s self-isolation as they navigated this new reality. The images are overwhelmingly portrayed in an empty state, creating tension resulting from the absence of their human inhabitants. I was the individual that Susan Sontag argued “sought to record that could not intervene” as opposed to “the person who intervened that could not then faithfully record.” My process on this project records the pause experienced from our two years of breathing moistly.