As we approach the sad second anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic, we realise how much everything has changed. Many of us have had to face personal tragedies and professional disruptions. In this context, it seems somewhat far-fetched to discuss the question of how photography and pandemic affected each other. But I want to make a point that it is not irrelevant at all.
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Here in Germany, the first Covid-19 case was confirmed on 27 January 2020, and the pandemic was officially declared on 11 March 2020. That’s two years now, and those two years were both reflected and shaped by images. It is the first worldwide pandemic in which almost everybody has a photographic device in his or her pocket, and the first (almost) worldwide lockdown with visual real-time communication (spreading images via social media, video calls, remote work) widely available. We will remember Covid-19 as a turning point, I think. Why and how? An approach in six steps.
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1. Images of the catastrophe
In the beginning, there were the news photos from North Italy. Morgues full of coffins and convoys of army lorries that were needed to transport all the Covid-19 victims. Since then, our collective image memory has been constantly stoked. Visualisations of proteins with their spikes, hospital scenes, vaccinations, tourist attractions without tourists. If in ten or twenty years, we see the photo of deserted St Mark’s square in Venice, we will say: This was the time of Covid. Borders were closed, face masks had become ubiquitous in Europe.
At the same time, we are losing images. Casual group shots at family events. The carefully staged photos of 20 politicians, shoulder to shoulder, during a G20 Summit. Our children’s bunch of laughing classmates on their first school day. Even the unavoidable Mr Major, side by side with other important people, cutting through a red ribbon on the occasion of the opening of a new kindergarten in your paper’s local section – all these images are vanishing. The story of Covid is also the story of images that were not made. Will they ever come back?
Thanks to digitalisation and the omnipresence of electronic media, a global phenomenon creates nothing short of worldwide imagery. From Salisbury cathedral transformed into a vaccination centre and the World Press Photo winning image of relatives hugging through a plastic foil in Brazil to the paramilitary drill of Chinese hospital staff to US citizens attacking their own government: Covid-19 is also a media incident; you do not need to see the images I am referring to and you yet know exactly which images I mean. This shows that photos play a decisive role in this situation. In times of Covid-19, it is clearer than ever that a picture says more than a thousand words — and, above all, it conveys so many more emotions.
2. Far things come close, close things get unreachable
While images can create a sense of being present, of being part of something distant, the optics of Covid-19 have turned things upside down. As if focal lengths were reversed, the wide-angle lens of your mobile phone or of the webcam in your tablet or laptop has become the device to cover long distances. Not optically for sure, but these often distorted and sub-standard images have created a sense of being close. In video calls with the family on another continent or just in the nearby old people’s home. And yes, even if the images were bad, we all were and still are happy to see friends, family, colleagues at least via grotesque wide-angle portraits.
On the other hand, the places nearby were unreachable. All the spots we used to capture with our telephoto lenses so many times. The Alpine summits just across my Bodensee in Switzerland when the border was closed. Your favourite cliffs on the nearby seaside or other familiar places in your surroundings that became inaccessible because of curfew measures. What we were used to perceiving as close seemed suddenly so far away.
So, Covid-19 has, in my view, triggered a new kind of image. I call them the images of longing. In them, photography as a cultural technique is thrown back to its original function — the representation of things that are absent, that we are missing, that we want to see because it is reassuring. It’s not by accident that many of these images are kitsch. In a time full of sorrow, we love pictures full of happiness, warmth and innocence.
3. Crisis in creativity; with and without catharsis
Crisis and creativity have had a special relationship ever since. In fact, the one without the other is hardly possible in the long run. But there is one big difference with Covid-19. We are not (only) talking about a crisis on the personal/artistic level but a global catastrophe, a common threat that paralyses us all in a specific way. Does it set free a common boost in creativity then? It does not, I would argue, because we cannot respond together to the thread with a shared experience in the sense of personal encounters and discourses. Or, to be precise, we can’t culturally respond together to this crisis. Not yet.
Let me use two articles here on Macfilos to illustrate my point. Far from my presuming to offer a psychological analysis, Dave Seargeant’s “Dungeness portfolio” is (also) an echo of Covid-19 for sure. It would have looked different without Covid, Dave would have written differently without Covid, and it would have evoked different emotions among you as readers without the background of Covid. Another very interesting aspect offers the Macfilos contribution by Roderick Field, “Solitude, a dog, a bicycle and a new-found love for Leica” which was much discussed here in the community. For me, personally, it is a very touching example of Covid-related creative work, both in terms of imagery and narrative.
I do not want to stretch these two examples too far — but if you are observing the creative production that was published during the pandemic, we can see what the crisis has altered. It is obvious that the crisis served as a kind of catharsis in some instances and that it has (so far) failed to do so in other ways. I am not a big supporter of Aristotle’s idea of “pity and fear” aroused by a spectacle that leads to cathartic moments among the witnesses to the scene. But I strongly believe in the creative potential of a dramatic event. The outcome is sometimes optimistic and sometimes pessimistic, sometimes it takes a stance and sometimes it refuses to take a position. In either case, it is an outcome.
4. Rediscovering the basics and the analogue renaissance
In times of isolation and reflection (probably even contemplation), many of us tend to look back and ask ourselves what really matters. When our range of activities in the horizontal dimension decreases so dramatically, the vertical dimension becomes more important. We begin to go deeper and closer, and in doing so we frequently expect answers to our questions from contemplating our pasts. For many of us, that was the time when we learned and came to love photography. So we want to tie in with that. And if you happen to have a beautiful old Leica or other cameras in your drawer… then a film can be ordered quickly, and the developing is easily organised by mail. And you’re back where you once were.
But this is only half of an explanation for the analogue renaissance. Dealers tell me that they sold more films in 2021 than they have in any other year of the past decade. Many buyers were young people born into the digital (photo) age. They were particularly attracted by the slow, the reduced, the conscious way of photographing that work on film naturally demands. Perhaps all this would also have happened without Covid-19. But I am sure that the pandemic at least fostered the rediscovery of classical photography.
And one more thought about the revival of film: In times of crisis, there is nothing better than something thoroughly reassuring. A Kodak film roll is reassuring, and a Leica rangefinder camera certainly also is. It surprises me not at all that a device from a very distant past yet (apparently) built for eternity has become something so desirable. If there are not many certainties left, an M3 oozes stability. Imagine, nothing digital — more: nothing electric! — inside. I know quite some people who feel attracted to something that has no obsolescence. Including myself.
5. Perception, reality, authenticity and disinformation
A point where the pandemic and photography meet for sure is perception – and the distinction between perception and reality. A photograph represents a reality as seen by its creator and initiates a perception in its viewer at the same time. The sum of perceptions, acquired by an individual over a certain time, will influence his or her conception of reality. Insofar, photography performs the role of a medium in a textbook manner. It reflects and, in doing so, changes the world (in large, or in very small ways) at the same time.
We often heard the phrase “perception is reality” in the last years, and the pandemic shows us how dangerous this idea is. Without discussing in detail what reality is — there is, there must be, a difference between an individual feeling, an opinion, a personal conviction on the one side and acquired knowledge, scientific evidence and shared values on the other. A photograph that claims to be authentic however can be rooted both in the personal attitude and in the common values, and the image does not automatically reveal it. Are the photos of protesters against democratically negotiated Covid rules taken in a particularly dramatic way by an individual because he wants to convey a message? Or are these images simply a testimony to an event as it was? In the widely published and shared photos, what expressions are showing on the faces of the people who are receiving their injection of the vaccine? Pain and fear or rather relief and gratitude?
Authenticity may be an illusion in itself, and since images can be manipulated so easily afterwards, even more so. But what is very real, unfortunately, is purposeful disinformation. Supposedly objective documents such as photos have always contributed to this unsavoury business in an inglorious way. It remains to be seen whether and how Covid-19 will further damage trust in our traditional means of knowledge such as pictures (or statistics, or science) — or whether the exact opposite will occur.

What’s more interesting than even the greatest scenery on the Atlantic coast? Me!
6. Individual, society, media and images
Finally, the ongoing negotiation of the relationship between the individual and society has become very important in these times. It’s not only about the question of whether one should get vaccinated. It’s not only about the question of whether it is tolerable that schools are shut down while no one dares close a single factory. And it’s not only about the question of whether it is appropriate to isolate old and dying humans for the sake of infection control. No. It is, if I may say, more about the size of the ego and ignorance towards the community.
With the emergence of social media where everyone is his or her own reporter, editor and publisher at the same time, we saw a shift from traditional mass media to filter bubbles. Many people were talking about a “democratisation” of publishing. But now, during Covid-19 and thus in times of a shared crisis, this pseudo-progress is taking revenge. Because a sum of egos forms no society. I find it reassuring to see that classical media have regained some ground in the past two years. But we journalists have also noticed how much it bothers people when they are challenged and not always just confirmed. The media have to find their own answer to this — and I am sure that images will play a big role in the solution.
As a side effect, the changing relationship between me and us, between the individual and society, has a new pictorial representation. Where there are no more friends, no more family, no more guests and no more onlookers that we can photograph (simply because there are hardly any occasions for it anymore), what remains as a subject is: ourselves. The technical development of smartphones and the social shift towards individualisation lead almost inevitably to the selfie. If there is an epitome of the Covid-19 picture, it is that of a person who finds himself or herself so interesting and important that he or she has to take a picture of him or herself all the time.
Conclusion and outlook
A few days ago, I was jogging in the early morning before going to work. The sun rose behind the Alps and over the Bodensee into an immaculate blue winter sky. It was a scene of perfect beauty. By the wayside stood a woman, her back turned to the sun, her hand in an awkward gesture above her head, grasping her smartphone. She wanted to take a selfie of her face (in the shadow obviously) and the bright sun behind. I hope her endeavour gave her some comfort (or reassurance) in these hard times at least. The picture almost certainly was not very good. But who cares.
Photography has, in parts, certainly become more individual, more personal in the times of the pandemic. At the same time, it has increased its social function — in the form of shared images between friends and family, in the form of published images in the mass media, in the form of framings that influence our perception and, at the least, in the form of added items in our collective image memory (assuming that really exists, but that’s another story).
The question remains whether and how Covid-19 influences everyday photographic practice. Professional photographers are suffering a dramatic lack of assignments, and many must fight hard to survive in their jobs if they haven’t already looked for another profession. A recent survey among amateur photographers in Germany shows that almost half of the panel said they took fewer photos than before Covid-19 while a quarter shot more (for the remainder, nothing had changed). The main reason is, according to the participants, less travel and fewer opportunities to take images. However, 29 per cent stated they “feel less creative”. If you are caught in an avalanche of pictures and at the same time your horizon has considerably narrowed, this is not surprising. At the same time, another survey commissioned by an online photo service – and not conducted among amateur photographers but among the general public – stated that the personal significance of photos has increased for about one in three respondents.
Maybe, Jean Perenet’s wonderful Macfilos article, “Pictures in the time of Covid” shows how important photography still is to many people and how some of them are mastering the exploration of their own area in times when travelling is difficult or impossible. For me, Jean’s work is a perfect example of how you can succeed in exchanging far horizons for close perspectives (both in the literal and the figurative sense).
The longer I think about it, the more certain I am: Photography and Covid-19 have more to do with each other than one might think at first glance. They interact with each other in a multifaceted, non-linear and often ambiguous way. Both the pandemic itself and the images of the pandemic are continually influencing us. It is good to keep this in mind when we look at these images of the pandemic — and when we ourselves create images that, already now or sometime later, feel like images of this pandemic.
What do you think? Has Covid-19 influenced your own photography and if yes, how? What looks a typical Covid-19 image like in your eyes? How are changes in society and changes in imagery linked in your opinion? What role did images play during this crisis for you or your community? And what are you hoping for? Any addition or contradiction to this essay from your side? Any aspect you would like to discuss in more depth? The comments section is yours; the author tries to answer as many of your contributions as possible.
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Jörg-Peter, Thank you so much for this article, charting the Covid 19 pandemic and the impact on so many facets of our lives. I cannot thank you enough for drawing my recovery article in to the mix, I sit here writing this with tears in my eyes, I still marvel at my own survival, and question why? Covid is a massive equaliser, and none of us have been safe from its clutches. Many have not been so lucky as I have.
I also enjoyed that you drew inspiration from others here in the Macfilos Stratosphere, and that we have inspired you during the worst crisis in recent living history.
The images you add, just add poignancy to your wonder words. My imagery has changed during the pandemic, but also my whole approach to taking images. I have learnt new techniques, both in camera, and in post production. Perhaps I had the time and capacity to experiment and consider new ideas. I have also found a layer of fearless bravery, to be blunt with my what I accept as publishable, which has improved how my images are viewed on places like Flickr. In fact Mike will attest to this new approach – instead of folder swimming with imagery, he received a tight, small number of images that are all included in the article I wrote.
What I learnt, is that life is short, show what adds value, and be relevant in the moment. That way you will land the message, and this article certainly does that. Thank you for taking the time to pull it together.
Best Dave
Dear Dave,
I am especially grateful for your feedback. Indeed, I thought more than once of you when putting together this article. Strange, isn’t it? I do not know you, but your article and your images were really relevant for me. I really like the M. Stratosphere as you call it, it is refreshingly different from to many other photography sites.
I do wish you all the best, take profit from your new skills and above all do enjoy your life. The idea of adding value to our lives and in doing so adding value to the lives of the humans around us would be a really good outcome of this pandemic. But maybe it’s just naive to hope for that to happen. Anyway, we can make a start.
So all the best for you, Jörg-Peter
Thank you Jörg-Peter. I recognize a lot in what you write. The first wave has been a retreat inwards in so many ways, including photography. But it has also resulted in a refueled appreciation of situations that I took for granted. Like travel, and like being ‘out there’ with people.
Thank you Erwin, and please forgive my late replying. I made the same observation as you. Let’s hope we can keep the new appreciation of things we took for granted. BTW compliment for your “exit Leica” article, I liked it a lot. In one of my next contributions to Macfilos, an M Typ 262 will play an important role. A great camera! Best JP
Dear Joerg-Peter, Thank you so much for writing and sharing your article. I found it extremely thought provoking and read it through several times in order to fully appreciate the many ways you had reflected on this interplay between the pandemic and photography. I really liked the way that you structured your article, and the multiple lines of thought you pursued in exploring this topic. I believe you are a journalist, and therefore the quality of your writing might be taken for granted. But, I think your writing is superb. I would consider it superb if written by a native English speaker, but the fact that English is not your mother tongue is astonishing! The photographs accompanying the article were not the type one would typically submit to a photography competition, but they complemented the article very well in my opinion – true photo-journalism.
I feel fortunate that I have been able to pursue and even expand my photographic interests during the pandemic. This largely because the climate in the region where I live is mild enough year-round that it has been possible to undertake a lot of activities, even dining, outdoor. Prompted by your article, I have reflected on my photography over the last two years and concluded that it has not been impacted by the pandemic. But, neither has it reflected or captured the pandemic – which I feel a little guilty about. The US has suffered over 900,000 covid-related deaths, and might well reach one million. Where we are today is the result of a tragedy of disorganization and incompetence on one hand, and a triumph of science and ingenuity on the other.
The one photograph in my collection which I shall look back on as emblematic of what we have been through is of me, taken by someone else but with my camera, receiving my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. I worked for the company for almost 30 years, and so found the experience deeply moving. I get teary-eyed thinking about it.
So, thank you once again for your wonderful reflection on photography and the pandemic.
All the best, Keith
Thany you very much, Keith, I am flattered.
In fact, I love writing for Macfilos also because it is a nice way to stay in good shape langugage-wise. And Mike, our always meticulous editor does a litte bit of brushing up as well. As to the photos, I deliberately used some images that are probably not typical at first view because I definitely did not want to add to any chlicé.
And concerning your connection to Covid-19. I do not think that you should feel guilty in any way. It would be no help at all for the less fortunate. And: Thanks for sharing your Pfizer moment. Amidst all this misery, there is also a triumph of science and this achievement would not had been possible without globalization. Every coin has two sides.
Best wishes, Jörg-Peter
Thank you JP for putting your thinking into print. Aspects for each of us to reflect upon.
In our photography we will have each responded to the pandemic and lockdowns in our own individual ways. For me I’ve basically stopped carrying a camera. Instead, I’m spending a lot more time going back into image archives on the computer, remembering photo times and trying to learn something more from the images – could I have done that differently? could I have done that image better?
It’s time for me to kick start the batteries and get them back into the cameras. You and others have done well to keep cameras clicking.
Thanks, Wayne. The enfored inward jouney I tried to describe has many facets for sure. Just like you, I also spent more time than usual with pictures from the past. Good luck for you and your fresh start! JP
Thanks Jörg-Peter for this wonderful article.
I oparticularly like the image of the railway-line junction which is for me the best representation of what is and what lies ahaead of us. Had I not been retired I would certainly have used the image to explain my students the different levels to interpret an image and a text.
Covid has affetecd my photography in some ways. Except when going to faraway places where I would systematically take my Ricoh GR, I’ve kept the same discipline one outing on focal length only. However the subjects were restircted as were our moves. I’ve been working on the rust and decay series more systematically and have about 100 images so far, trying to get the most satisfactory image with a different light, framing and lens. I’ve been to the same places over and over again, trying to find an interesting subject. Portraiture with masks was pretty restrictive.
The positive point is that my recent retirement has allowed me to take pictures almost everyday.
Jean
Dear Jean,
thanks for writing. I am happy you liked my essay. It’s probably not what you usually read but here on Macfilos, I found it a good idea to share my thoughts with the community, and I am grateful that your editor, Mike, agreed. I hope the discussion will go on for some more time because there is so much to think about when in comes to the effect of images for our lives and cultures (with or without Covid).
It’s interesting that you also seem to belong to the reduction group. I think, many photographers made some kind of an inward journey in the last two years (well, outward was difficult), and I am curious if and how this will affect the way we depict (and, consequently, perceive) our realities. I, in contrary, tried to widen my horizons, and one of the results was and is my The M Files series.
All the best for you and for “what is and lies ahead” (in this case, for you).
JP
Thanks Joerge-Peter. It’s hard to believe we have been living this way for the last two years but we have managed to adapt to new ways of doing things: Zoom anyone?
I have tried to discipline myself to go out at least 5 days a week with a camera and only one lens. Pick one and make it work for that day. You may not like the lens but you have at least tried to make the most of it. I walk 5-10k on each occasion so I’m getting some exercise. Most of my walks are in my neighborhood which borders Lake Michigan. It’s the perfect location whether the temperature is -15C, there is no sun, or its 20C and humid. Thankfully the lake is a chameleon and presents new opportunities each day.
I recently indulged in a Q2 to add to my CL kit so now have quite different challenges depending on the light that day.
What I miss most is going downtown Chicago and photographing people. Yes you can do it, but most people are still wearing masks so facial expressions are missing which makes that exercise less than satisfying.
So here’s the moving out of Covid, the arrival of Spring and a gradual return to normality!
Dear Le Chef,
congratulations to your Q2. I think it is a perfect tool for your way of photography. An dit has only one lens :-). Good luck and good success with both creative and physical practice. Both is important! JP
PS: Lakes are great, even if i’s not one of the Great Lakes. The Bodensee where I am living looks different every day, and you could almost believe it has a personality. Sometimes good-humoured and sometimes angry, sometimes full of evil foreboding and sometimes full of optimism.
Great piece, Joerg Peter. This is a topic which is very relevant as a lot of photographers struggled to make photographic sense of what was a very strange time in their lives. A photo of mine has appeared in a book called Mass Isolation which features photos taken during the first period of lockdown. My photo was actually taken just before the lockdown commenced but it got picked up by a ‘Mass Isolation’ Instagram site which led to book of the same name. My photo has no real relationship with Covid, but it was somewhat miraculous or even serendipitous. There is an effect in the photo which looks like it was photoshopped, but the effect was entirely natural and was caused by a light leak in the bellows of a camera from 1919 which I was testing for a friend. Recently I heard two photographers discussing the creative use of fogging, but it this case it was the creativity of nature and a 100 year old camera. I will send the image to Mike and yourself by email.
The book is about to go to full printing and I have an advance copy. I will see if I can get copies of the final version for Mike and yourself when it is published. The book contains many of the usual photos of empty streets and people with masks, but some people used extreme creativity to create little worlds and other unusual effects indoors. You can lock down photographers, but you cannot lock out their creativity.
William
Thank you, William,
your comment is much appreciated. I am in awe of your approach to photography in times of Covid and I would be happy to have a fraction of your knowledge and courage. The photo you are referring to is fascinating in every respect. And it links the current situation back to 1919, what an incredible idea. It must be absoulte stand-out in the book you mention.
And as to your last, very meaningful sentence, a famous and very beautiful German folk song come to my mind. It is mainly sung by social democrats nowadays, but its roots are much older. It has the title “Die Gedanken sind frei”:
Die Gedanken sind frei,
wer kann sie erraten,
sie fliehen vorbei
wie nächtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen,
kein Jäger erschießen,
es bleibet dabei:
die Gedanken sind frei.
You could replace “Gedanken” (thoughts) by “art” or “photography”.
Best, JP
Thanks Joerg Peter. Thoughts are free. The difficulty is often getting the image in line with your thoughts. I can visualise images, but often the results are disappointing. Sometimes, it just pure luck, of course.
William
Yes, William,
transforming an idea into an image is the most difficult part of art. Something that is only in your own imagination is to be transferred to a medium that makes it public in whatever way. The same is true for artiful writing, especially lyric, dance, sculpture, any form of art. I do not claim to produce any of this kind. When a photo I shot turns out to be somewhat arty, I am still a bit surprised myself (which is maybe the best proof that I am no artist)…
Best, JP
Thanks Joerg Peter
My thought of today before reading your article was a wish of shooting just with a single camera, a film one maybe better. Is not that I have many but just several. Telling myself: please stop producing thousands and focus in making decent photos.
Your article works as a reflection on how pandemic altered image. Paradoxically while everything became digital it seems photography became analog. Used to photograph people’s gestures, at the beginning was the sense that every possibility of doing something was over. Now that pandemic is probably to be some time over, the sense is my photographs will be never the same.
It’s like if the essentials are no longer such. Or the original sense of freedom is also wearing a mask from now on. Out of balance.
Dear George, thank you for your feedback. Maybe, we are living in a phase of reduction: Less contacts, less travel, less freedom – and less gear makes perfect sense to me. It is one way to exchange with for depth as I wanted to point out. I think, you are making your way to the essence of your things. Good luck with it! JP
Great article JP. Another point for your list is my last. Balance lost: great venues and benefits for a few, isolation and rushed times for most