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Scenes From a Pandemic

“Scenes From a Pandemic” is an audiovisual multimedia project that explores the profound human and emotional landscape of the COVID-19 crisis. Working through personal impressions, it captures the stark reality and psychological weight of life in New York City from March 2020 through January 2021.

The work unfolds in two parts: the first spans March 20 to May 30, 2020—beginning with the announcement of the statewide shutdown and continuing through the citywide lockdown—when the metropolis became eerily still. The second extends from May 30, 2020, marked by the surge of protests, to January 1, 2021, chronicling the collective tension and resilience that followed.

Drawing from lived experience and memory, Scenes From a Pandemic presents a curated selection of photographs accompanied by an original soundtrack tailored to the images. This synthesis of sight and sound evokes the shifting emotions of those months—fear, solitude, and improbable beauty—through an 18-minute immersive composition. Viewers are transported into the silent city: its empty crosswalks, hushed avenues, and the charged uncertainty of a world where even a trip for groceries felt perilous.

TURN ON YOUR SOUND
Sound is an equal part of the experience

The COVID-19 lockdown in New York City was the first experience of its kind for many: fear of an invisible disease, mass deaths, overburdened hospital emergency rooms, people in masks, and isolation from one another. Death tolls continued to rise in New York City and around the world. People were largely absent from the streets, and car and truck traffic fell dramatically. Beginning March 22, non-essential businesses were required to close their in-office functions. The sound of New York changed—a quieter city with a different ambience. I heard birds outside my window, a sound I was not used to hearing. The skies looked different to me, and even the air seemed to smell different.

For many people there was no workplace to go to. Walks became a daily ritual and an escape. The city felt cleaner to me, with less litter and pollution. The streets were scattered with people exercising or going to grocery stores and pharmacies. At many stores, customers waited six feet apart outside while entry was limited under store-capacity rules.

The days began to meld together—days into weeks, weeks into months. Uncertainty was the only certainty. Ambulance sirens continued to cry through the streets. On occasion, a voice could be heard calling out into the emptiness. At 7 p.m., people clapped, cheered, and banged pots from their windows to support and thank medical workers: a new daily ritual.

As New York City moved toward reopening, construction was among the first industries permitted to resume. As the weather warmed, the sound of machines returned and more people gathered in parks. People experiencing homelessness, and others who had previously seemed to remain at the margins, became more visible to me.

Shaky leadership and misinformation continued to come from above.

Historical context and sources

New York City public school buildings closed on March 16, 2020. On March 20, New York State announced the NYS on PAUSE order, requiring non-essential businesses to close their in-office functions effective March 22. The MTA began an Essential Service Plan on March 25, reducing scheduled service while continuing transportation for first responders, medical personnel, and other essential workers. By June, New York City had lost 758,000 private-sector jobs, with food service and retail among the hardest-hit industries. A statewide public face-covering requirement was announced on April 15 and took effect on April 17.

New York City entered Phase One of reopening on June 8, allowing construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, agriculture, and retail for curbside or in-store pickup to resume under mandatory safety requirements. Public schools reopened in stages in September and temporarily closed again in November after the city’s seven-day positivity average reached 3%. Indoor dining was suspended on December 14. New York’s nursing-home vaccination program began on December 21.

A peer-reviewed study published in Nature estimated that 44% of residents in the New York metropolitan area had been infected by the end of 2020. By August 2021, COVID-19 had claimed the lives of more than 33,000 New Yorkers. The New York City Health Department later determined that the city’s COVID-19 mortality rate in 2020 exceeded its mortality rate during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Principal sources
New York State — NYS on PAUSE
MTA — 2020 Operations Plan
New York City Comptroller — Save Main Street
City of New York — Official reopening guide
Nature — Peer-reviewed infection-prevalence study
Columbia University — Study summary
NYC Health — 2020 vital statistics
BMM Gallery — Full source notes and preservation record

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