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Documenting Covid-19

#FamiliesOfWilliston

On the evening of March 11, 2020, I was unwinding by watching some NBA basketball on TV. Before, my day had seemingly unfolded like any other day. I had a breakfast meeting with a colleague; I edited some photographs to deliver to a client; I had a photo shoot at UVM. All-in-all, it was a typical Wednesday, but the gathering Covid-19 storm was beginning to be felt. One day prior, on March 10, Vermont registered its first positive case. During my breakfast meeting, our server kept his distance. When my colleague and I parted ways, he offered me a shot of hand sanitizer, which I gladly accepted. When I was photographing at UVM, my subject and I shared our thoughts about how life would change going forward. Though we couldn’t foresee many of the massive changes to come, it was clear that much was about to be upended.

At the end of that March day, a little sleepy while half-watching a Dallas v. Denver game, I perked up when the broadcast switched to the scene of an entirely different game – Utah v. Oklahoma City – to show NBA officials huddling at half court. Something big was about to happen. A few moments later, to the thousands in attendance and the TV audience, they announced that the game was canceled (before it even began) and that everyone was to go home. The NBA then released a statement suspending their season until further notice because a player on the Utah Jazz tested positive for Covid-19. That evening, I understood that we were experiencing a worldwide pandemic that would affect us all.

In Vermont and around the country, the dominoes began to fall … and fast. In those middle days of March, in-person schooling was suspended, most retail businesses shut their doors, and people were broadly told to stay home.

The breakneck speed at which our everyday lives were upended meant businesses needed to change up and do so quickly to address the public health crisis. Governor Scott issued a Stay Home/Stay Safe order that outlined the new normal, which instructed non-essential businesses to limit their operations to, among other things, curb-side delivery. With that guidance in mind, I began thinking about how I could document this time in our history while adhering to the Governor’s order.

Though I’m not a family photographer, per se, I basically photograph people for a living, so decided to document my Williston neighbors, who were staying at home. I sent out a sign-up sheet via Facebook and Front Porch Forum posts and within hours, had a long list of families wanting to be included in this project, which I titled, #FamiliesOfWilliston. After the first few portraits, I began establishing a defined method. I would make my photographs curbside, generally from a low camera angle and in black & white. In the end, I made 133 portraits.

This set of photographs is my attempt to show one component of the pandemic: families at home. I chose the low camera angle to put these families in a heroic position. I chose black and white because, in many ways, these are austere times. I didn’t really choose the curb-side location, but this limiting factor did bring some visual continuity to the photographs. Limitations aren’t always bad. In the end, I look at these photographs as a portrait of a community, my community, in a historically important time.


Response Efforts

I then switched my focus to documenting the business, organizational and statewide response to the pandemic. From businesses that were shut down to businesses that changed their operations to organizations and state agencies working to meet growing needs and challenges, I have been working to tell these stories. I continue to work on this project, so this set of photographs is not fully organized or ready to formally present. This page is serving more as a journal while I think about how to proceed. In the meantime, if you know of stories worth telling, please reach out to me with that info. andy@andyduback.com or (802) 238-0392. Thank you. -Andy