Lido dei Pini, Italy, 2021.
After the morning coffee we plant an olive tree in my parents’ garden, in front of the sea. It’s not much bigger than your hand. My mother’s words come to mind. In spring, last year, she told me that planting little trees was her way to resist to the current events. We find a sun dried lizard on the grass, its blue skin glimmering, the tail stuck in a curvy movement. The heat rises and you ask me to cut your hair. It suits you better long, but I cut it nonetheless. I think of the flight I took from New York City a few days ago and how strange it is to switch every time from a world to another, trying to create a bridge between two different lives. But right now there’s just your hair scattered everywhere, the summer heat and the sound of the sea.
Lido dei Pini, Italy, 2021.
After the morning coffee we plant an olive tree in my parents’ garden, in front of the sea. It’s not much bigger than your hand. My mother’s words come to mind. In spring, last year, she told me that planting little trees was her way to resist to the current events. We find a sun dried lizard on the grass, its blue skin glimmering, the tail stuck in a curvy movement. The heat rises and you ask me to cut your hair. It suits you better long, but I cut it nonetheless. I think of the flight I took from New York City a few days ago and how strange it is to switch every time from a world to another, trying to create a bridge between two different lives. But right now there’s just your hair scattered everywhere, the summer heat and the sound of the sea.
Midtown Manhattan, New York City, 2021.
He followed me into a room where a band was playing half naked. He used to come there with his ex, then he was allowed to come also as a single man. I don’t remember what else we talked about. We explored a couple of rooms and just watched for a while. Then I had an IPA, he ordered a pink cocktail. “Well if you want to experiment, I’m available” he said.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, 2020.
Melonie and Trevelon matched on Bumble Sunday night at 11pm. They talked on the phone for 30 minutes. Then video called for 30 minutes. Melonie smiles. “I spray him down and make him wash his face and hands every time he comes into my house. Being with him feels natural, he makes me forget all that's happening in the world right now. I never thought I would connect so organically to someone during a world crisis.”
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, 2020.
This crisis has shown us that no matter how steady our lives looked, how successful anyone’s business might have been, anything can be snatched away from anyone in no time. What do we make of this. The questions about how society will learn from this experience and the mistakes that could have been avoided are on countless headlines and on the minds of the thinking. Most of the times my hopes don’t go far. The only quality I deeply trust in human beings is our ductility, our capability to adapt to whatever new circumstances are presented to us, and hopefully survive.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, 2020.
“I want to be in control. I feel like I can’t control anything in my life right now” a friend wrote to me the other day. I thought about it and realized I have the opposite problem. I have full control over the smallest world I’ve ever lived in.
Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City, 2020.
Across the street from the window someone is playing If You Leave Me Now, Chicago. It’s the kind of song that used to wake me up on Sunday mornings when my father was making eggs. It flies me into a glittery world I’ve never lived, as I imagine my parents as new lovers in their 20s. It’s the kind of song that couldn’t be farther away from my present reality, and maybe because of that I’m strangely happy to hear it sneak into my ears.
Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City, 2020.
This crisis has shown us that no matter how steady our lives looked, how successful anyone’s business might have been, anything can be snatched away from anyone in no time. What do we make of this. The questions about how society will learn from this experience and the mistakes that could have been avoided are on countless headlines and on the minds of the thinking. Most of the times my hopes don’t go far. The only quality I deeply trust in human beings is our ductility, our capability to adapt to whatever new circumstances are presented to us, and hopefully survive.
East River Park, New York City, 2020.
Theodore might be 7 or 8 years old. I’d like to be able to see this crisis through his eyes for a moment. To guess which blurry memories, perhaps a couple of sharp moments, will stay with him in his adult life. Theodore plays in silence on a tree that seems to be carved around him. When I start shooting he closes his eyes and stops moving for a while. I wonder how he imagines the photograph in his head, at the very moment it’s taken. The production of this photograph has been supported by Cortona On the Move and the Covid19 Visual Project.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, 2020.
Walking to get groceries on the phone with my mother in the afternoon, today I saw a black hole where my corner Deli used to be. José stood on the sidewalk, looking at the building and far away at the same time. Lately his Dominican music radio had been replaced by the sound of news in Spanish, talking about New York. I remember thinking that I was happy his business didn’t have to close.
