Portrait of a pandemic: Capturing the spaces we call home | The Listening Post (Feature)

Lockdown has changed everything - millions have been confined to their homes, public spaces have been left deserted. While journalists, like everyone else, have struggled to adapt to new and unprecedented working conditions, photojournalists have found opportunity amid the adversity.

"During the first two weeks, no journalists were allowed in the area where I live so they couldn't show the world what was going on here," says Marzio Toniolo, a 35-year old teacher turned photographer. "That's when I saw an opportunity."

Toniolo lives in San Fiorano, northern Italy, the epicentre of Europe's coronavirus outbreak and one of the worst affected regions in the world. His photographs document how his family, three generations under one roof, have adapted to a strict lockdown well into its third month.

"I wanted to focus on the normality of it all - what was going on at home day in, day out… I think everyone can identify in some way with my family's situation."

On the other end of the spectrum, the great urban spaces where millions once gathered, now lie empty and desolate. Phil Penman is a British photographer based in New York City, and in 25 years of chronicling life in the city, he's never seen anything like it.

"It's very weird because you go out there and there are no photographers. So I wanted to try to capture the emptiness of the city."

His work is achingly quiet. Landmarks such as Grand Central Terminal and the Statue of Liberty - once teeming with visitors - are shrouded in silence and stillness.

"It's just totally bizarre," says Penman. "If I was the city, I would be asking what happened? You know, where is everybody? It's emotional being out there."

In other parts of the world, solitude is a luxury that many cannot afford.

"Daily wage earners and workers live in highly crowded dwellings with barely any space to stretch their legs," explains Ravi Choudhary. "If one of them catches coronavirus, it's inevitable others will get infected too because they cannot quarantine themselves."

Choudhary is a Delhi-based photographer for the Press Trust of India. His photographs provide shocking witness to the mass upheaval of migrant workers caused by the lockdown. Forced into the streets and stranded hundreds of kilometres from their homes, they have no choice but to attempt the journey on foot.

"I followed this little girl with a large bag on her head after spotting her in the crowd and I asked her where she was headed," recalls Choudhary. "Her village was about 400 kilometers away and I thought to myself, how is this little girl, with such a heavy burden, going to make it all the way back to her village… Sometimes all you need is one single photo to understand the whole story. "

The Listening Post's Flo Phillips talks to three photographers - each with a unique perspective on life under lockdown, and how it has changed the way we inhabit the spaces in which we live.

Contributors:

Marzio Toniolo - Teacher and photographer

Phil Penman - Photographer

Ravi Choudhary - Photographer, Press Trust of India

Produced by: Flo Phillips and Ahmed Madi

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