Gabriella Baez
by Gabriella Baez from San Juan, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico has seen back-to-back crises for the past years, 2020 was no exception. We welcomed the new year with multiple catastrophic earthquakes, the strongest one being a 6.4 on the Richter scale. We decided that we would celebrate a new-New Year in February with parties popping up all over promoting “new year’s eve happy hour” and 2 x 1 shots of rum or hard liquor of your preference. Who would have thought that the new-New Year we had just celebrated would quickly become the year that doesn’t count.
Initially we had thought that quarantine would last two weeks. Social media posts celebrated this fixed time as a space for rest and taking care of loved ones, but as soon as the two weeks passed we quickly realized that quarantine was just beginning. As cases and chaos grew we went more and more inside our homes, but longing for our family, friends, and the feel of the outdoors.
During the height of the Covid-19 crisis in Puerto Rico we had some of the strictest stay-at-home rules of any US territory or state. Access to nature was restricted and those of us who don't have patios, large plots of land, or balconies had almost no access to direct sunlight or the outdoors. One of the few reasons my partner and I would step outside our home is to hang pour hand washed laundry in the shared patio space.
I wondered what the sea water felt like, how the sand would massage my feet. The ocean called me, the beach told me to visit her like a much needed medicine. After all, we live on an island.
By May cases continued to grow, but control over our mobility dwindled. I ran, like a child, to the water. Taking a breather at last from the confinement of my tiny one bedroom apartment.
SELF-PORTRAITS: PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CONFINEMENT
Curated by Svetlana Bachevanova
A collection of self-portraits made by photojournalists from five continents during the unprecedent lockdown due to the corona virus pandemic.
Photographers are people on the road, living to document the lives of others.
Constrained by the lockdown, many of them had their first experience of being still long enough to begin seeing and understanding small details about who they are, their lifestyles and values, that were overshadowed while they were busy. These self-portraits express their experience.
This is a unique collection of self-portraits from some of the best lenses in photojournalism at an historic moment.
Photographers in Confinement is a project in process and I welcome additional submissions from photojournalists at svetlana@fotoevidence.com
I am looking for potential exhibition partners in the USA and abroad.
Svetlana Bachevanova is a founder and publisher of FotoEvidence, long time photojournalist and curator.
