IRREVERSIBLE

The human race has been threatened by the Coronavirus pandemic since early 2020. Nearly everyone’s life has been altered in some way. Many of these changes appear to be permanent.

 

Irreversible uses a symbolic and expressionistic language to create portraits and still lifes that capture COVID-19’s psychological effects, especially on those who have contracted it. In addition to documenting the phenomena caused by the pandemic, its black-and-white photographs are are printed on sheets of glass that has been broken, scratched, abraded, and otherwise distressed. The glass itself represents the human fragility that COVID-19 has exposed.

 

I myself experienced COVID firsthand, but to understand how it has affected others I interviewed and talked to my subjects before I photographed them. Some had lost their sense of taste, some experienced coughing and a fever for a number of days, and most had various forms of physical discomfort. One of my subjects got sick at the beginning of the pandemic and is still in pain from its effects, in what has been called long COVID. Many of them missed spending time with their family and friends and were sad when in isolation. My personal experience included losing my sense of smell and feeling dizzy. Along with capturing these feelings and experiences with more abstract imagery, Irreversible’s photographs offer observations of the current state of society in general, from isolation chambers at restaurants to COVID-19 testing sites. 

 

COVID-19 has taken millions of lives and damaged our entire social fabric. It has created an unprecedented human isolation as lockdowns and other protocols have forced people to stay apart from one another with profound psychological consequences. The world is starting to find solutions to some of the problems the pandemic has caused, but there is no way to return things to the way they were before it struck. Irreversible aims to show the irreversibility of this terrible scourge, and the human fragility it has brought to light.