Aspirations become fixations. “I won’t die,” I tell him. “Not for a long, long time. Not until you’re ready.” Photographs by the author. It felt strange at first. Novel. To be alive in the time of a crisis, a pandemic, a real-life Day of the Dead, only different. This one a silent stalker, marked by a dry...
“I know I’m one of the lucky ones. Indeed, sheltering in place has made me double down on what I had been doing before all this started.” Self-portrait with Rio. Editors’ Note: In ordinary times, Jonathan Machen, fifty-six, lives and works just outside Boulder, Colorado. With a recent solo show at the Museum of Boulder, this...
Rationing, self-discipline … It’s not as if we’ve never done it before. “We weren’t sitting on our hands waiting for something to happen, we were a force. We had it in us to make simple sacrifices that ultimately made the difference.” Photo by Tobias Freeman on Unsplash. I don’t have to tell you we’re in the midst...
Walking a baby through a British wood and a pandemic. “It was a long, windy, and wet winter like all British winters, which are best described by inhabitants as ‘utter shit.’ These winters inspire people to emerge from their homes and risk the pandemic to feel this shock of spring sun.” A mature sweet chestnut...
“Our own reckoning with temptation is underway…” Jay Phagan, flickr. Quarantine immobilizes our protests; planned demonstrations fall away like butterflies in a strong wind. In quarantine we are disembodied. Almost overnight, our go-to tactics — a rally here, a sit-in there — are no longer options. For decades, we have agitated in one form or another for disruption. Emissions are...
