Live dancing may largely be put on hold, but there is still beauty and catharsis outside the theater, in the movements we encounter every day. We asked four photographers to show us how people physically navigate a world where awareness of our bodies – how much space we occupy, whether we are six feet from our neighbor – has become the norm.
Camilo Fuentealba
Camilo Fuentealba staked New York’s hottest club – Costco – in addition to local businesses in town where locals shop for essentials. “I decided to investigate how we move in these routine places and how we move to document the daily rituals we must attend to survive,” he said.
“During the quarantine, supermarkets, along with a handful of other places, were the center of the universe, a holdover from reality. They were the only walls in which we were allowed – sometimes forced – to be around strangers. “
Jillian Freyer
Jillian Freyer photographed her sister and mother’s quarantine in the backyard of her mother’s Connecticut home. “I am drawn to the fragments between the productions,” she said, “when people are open and vulnerable and move between the moments with ease.”
“The way we move around has changed over the past year. Indoor spaces look claustrophobic and our outdoor spaces aren’t big enough. Backyards and gardens have been reinvented into hideaways,” she said. “We have become resourceful and grateful for the places we occupy and with them.”
“Those otherwise little moments when the laundry is hung up, hugged, and moved around in the backyard – they suddenly have to be something more significant.”
Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet
Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet stationed himself in Manhattan’s touristy areas during the holidays. “I enjoy capturing those fractions of a second of movement,” she said. “At some point, reality in photography can suddenly become surreal.”
Noah Sahady
Noah Sahady captured the harmony of climbers and nature in the San Bernardino National Forest: Climbing, he said, takes him to environments where loneliness doesn’t feel so out of place.
“I think there is so much nuance, beauty, and tension in the movement of climbing, especially in the intricacies of how hands and fingers can interact with rock,” he said, “or to complement the environment, but also to deteriorate it.”
