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I was location scouting for a film that never happened.
Jonathan USA
That day I was in New York, I went to my regular gym. And my family sent me a photo of my dad and grandma in Shanghai. At that time I had heard about the Covid, but I thought it would not affect us for too long. I wasn't able to go back visiting my family in Shanghai until 2022. & I never saw my grandma again.
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I was sending a casual, goofy selfie kiss to my boyfriend while he was at the office, just a few weeks before we all stopped going to the office.
Anastasia Solopchuk Russian.JPG)
That evening, I met with a very good friend and professional colleague, with whom I am close, but we have always lived far apart from each other, so we rarely meet. I think even then we were talking about how we could understand the world. This is the content of his pocket that he laid out on the counter.
Peter Puklus Hungary
A silly selfie of me all dressed up and probably headed to the last of my art criticism classes. That's the Fenty lipstick in Candy Venom that's been discontinued. My scarf is from Zanzibar. I was probably stuck in traffic somewhere near Mumbai's Mahalaxmi Bridge, but January is still bright and cool enough that I wasn't sweating or uncomfortable. It seems like my taxi was congratulating me for my style, and my class, with a big bouquet!
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I took this self portrait of me and my family to send to a crush whom I had only met once. This crush ended up moving in with me two months later and we spent the pandemic together (still after only having met once).
Marianna Rothen Canada.jpg)
The first and last of the day, five minutes before midnight.
Marek Kita Poland
Salí a caminar por el parque de Chapultepec para despejar mi mente después de pasar todo el día en el estudio. Me encontré con estas alas de mariposa monarca; probablemente, se volvió el alimento de algún pájaro del parque.
Ernesto Solana Mexico
Camila is now my wife. When I made this photo we had only two weeks dating not knowing was coming further.
Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo Colombia
Maarten in room 209 of some unknown hotel in Paris. I think you didn't expect me to take this photo. We are tired and I am about to leave to the theater again to perform. You are freshly showered; looking so serious, while actually you are soft and sweet.
Sara Wilhelmsson Sweden
On January 10, 2020, I was two months into my 3-month stint in hospital trying to recover from a surgical error back in November 2019, when I found the creative and physical energy to shoot a few self-portraits in my hospital room. I hadn't eaten or had a drink for two months as my body tried to heal itself. I was getting all my nutrition through a PICC line in my arm that fed directly into my heart. By the time I made it home in early February murmurs of "Corona Virus" were spreading through the hospital -- but I was going home so I didn't think much of it. In fact, over the following seven months at home on my PICC line, not eating or drinking, while the rest of the world fell into turmoil and fear, I was fighting through my own journey of uncertainty and pain. So much so that I was barely aware of how much the world had changed until my home-care nurses started showing up with masks, and gloves and awkward new protocols meant to protect each of us. I ended up back in the hospital in early September 2020 for another surgery, and by that time many of the Covid-19 hospital protocols had relaxed quite a bit, so thankfully I'd managed to miss the worst of it all. The beginning of Covid is like an afterthought for me because of the physical and emotional pain I was living through each day. I can't imagine how much harder it would have been for me and my family had we been more aware of the state of the world.
Claire Dam Canada
This was my first try of ice-skating. There was a an ice-skating ring out in the open stadium in my hometown Odesa(Ukraine). The sunset during my struggling to skate was amazing.
Lizuza Ukraine
On January 10th 2020 at 17:58 I was watching a beautiful and quiet sunset at the winter village of Lálp d'huez in France. It was the very first day of our family winter vacation, we had arrived from Brazil earlier that morning, and we had absolutely no idea about the scenario we would be facing just 60 days later.
ANA LEAL Brazil
That day, when we got together with friends for an alternative dinner, my friends called it Mordisco, and we would have to eat pizzas without hands. The experience of 7 participants eating the same pizza at the same time was both funny and provocative. From there, I thought that the ways of eating I know are boring, so I would look for new ones.
Gaspar Iwaniura Lorge Argentina
Cooling down It was a really hot summer day in Buenos Aires, I was at my friend's house and this watermelon was the only thing inside her fridge. Immediately I thought it made a good picture so I snapped the picture with a flash. I still look at it with joy.
Maria Aponte Venezuela
I took this photo in Malindi along the coast of Kenya. At the time, I had a job in New Jersey. This was the first time that year I got to visit family in Kenya, and as is family tradition, we visited the coast. In the photo is the shadow of a "beachboy" who was selling coconuts. As he walked by, I could help but notice how his shadow interacted with the textures of the sand, the water and the footprints
Ian Wainaina Kenya
Synchronicity h 4:44 Friday, January 10th 2020 Screenshots Moto g(6) Rome, Italy. Synchronicity is a concept coined by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung to describe coincidences or events that seem related, even though they are not causally connected. Starting on July 10th, 2019, I began collecting screenshots from my phone whenever I saw specific patterns, such hours and minutes displayed the same number.
Tommaso Sacconi Italy
My feeling of inevitability
Marion Fletcher United Kingdom
Un día de regreso en carretera con mi familia, no recuerdo de donde veníamos, pero las nubes se veían increíbles.
verrrdin Mexico
Un viaggio a sorpresa per il mio 40esimo compleanno mi ha portata in Giordania. Il 10 gennaio 2020 visitavo la città di Jerash, con le sue lunghissime file di colonne. Ero felice, avevo mille progetti in testa e tanta energia per realizzarli. Tante cose nella mia vita stavano trovando il loro posto ed ero ottimista come non mai. Di li a qualche giorno le cose e le aspettative cambiarono. Tornata dalla Giordania mi ammalai, con sintomi strani. Non ho mai capito se sia stato Covid-19 oppure una semplice, ma lunga e invasiva, influenz
Anna Giuntini Italy
A moving overloaded bike on high speed.
Caleb Ishaya Oseshi Nigeria
January 10, 2020, was just another day for me. I had a mission - to stock up on paint supplies for my next art project. As I headed to the market wearing my trusty nose mask. It wasn't COVID-19 I was worried about then; it was the pungent smell of the paint factory. The fumes from vehicles always seemed to linger in the air, and I wanted to protect my nose from the strong odor. With my mask securely in place, I was ready to go to the market and find the perfect hues for my artwork. Little did I know, this ordinary day would mark the beginning of an extraordinary year.
Gregory Adjei Kumah Ghana
redsea taken by mobile phone in hurghada egypt
Omar Mourtagy Egypt
Two Nuns take a picture at a beach at Lake Victoria in Entebbe, Uganda
Odong Brian Uganda.jpeg)
December of 2019 both me and my wife invited our families to meet in Sintra, Portugal, a first at our home and a first in Portugal for both. On this day we went to see a stormy coastline in Azenhos do Mar.
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I was excited to have my first solo exhibition in nyc. And it's also my birthday.
GUANYU XU China
On this day, I was testing out an antique 8"x10" view camera that I was going to show my students. I ended up teaching large format photography through a computer screen throughout the next year.
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Still of our breakfast table with the tableware of grandfather Peter in my boyfriend’s family vacation home in Prien am Chiemsee, Bavaria.
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At that day I was at a festival celebrating music made with tapes, some people already started masking and it was the last festival for a long while.
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The only photo i took on this day was a screenshot of an old image showing my parents on a mountain hike in Austria in the early 70ties. My dad bought my mother this hiking outfit at Lodenfrey in Munich the day before.
Debora Mittelstaedt Germany.jpg)
Un viernes cualquiera decidí hacer esta foto en la que se ve una nota de amor de un ex novio, el recorte de los pantalones que solía comprarme, la pulsera del cumple de Arturo y muchos recuerdos más.
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This photograph of the full moon was taken just outside the gates of the Imperial War Museum in London. I must have been on my way to the Lambeth North tube station just down the road for a night out, or a late night food run to the nearest kebab shop.
Shane Lim Singapore.jpg)
On January 10, 2020, I was at a local beauty center, camera in hand, capturing these fantastic people in drag prepping for their "Therapy Session" show. more about me: sametdurgun.com
Samet Durgun Turkey
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In the morning of the 10th of January 2020 I woke up starring at the wall of the new appartment I mooved in. There were two of my works hanging (Andromeda Syndrome and Ultima Thule) on the new white wall, and a few books and camera in IKEA box I assembled the day before. It was a new chapter of my life in which my juvenility period ended.
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I was preparing for my first trip to Japan, which would last three weeks. Usually I put all the house plants in one place to make it easier for whoever is watering them while being away. One of the plants had somehow grown into an opening on the side of the heater and the vine had found a narrow spot, where it could exit again. Therefore I was unable to move that plant to another location in the apartment.
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Loss is an inevitable aspect of our personal lives. Be it the demise of a loved one or the termination of a romantic relationship, it leaves us feeling vulnerable and dejected. In his book "On the Wisdom of Life," Schopenhauer postulates that these emotions create an inner challenge, manifesting in fear, loneliness, and sadness. He asserts that the love of life is rooted in the fear of death, and the drive to socialize with others is not primarily motivated by affection for them but by the dread of solitude. My personal experience resonates with Schopenhauer's ideas, and I have observed that my works reflect this feeling. I have started collecting these emotions as a part of a project, and I believe that this work is inexhaustible. Abbas Maroufi once said, "Watch me from afar, and you may think I am doing fine. But up close, you will see that I am actually quite sad.
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It was night and I was walking through Pigneto, an area of Rome frequented by many young people. Amongst new cool cafes built during the gentrification of the neighbourhood, a few old authentic bars remained. That red pool hall is one of them and is frequented by older people who have lived in the neighbourhood for over 30 years.
Claudia Deganutti Italy
At the end of the day, I made this image in my home studio in Brooklyn using a color changing light I received as a holiday gift.
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As my friend and I wandered through the streets of Kreuzberg in Berlin, we passed a quirky bodega, where the scent of tea mixed with the odd sight of framed images—squirrels mid-action, clutching weapons—leaving me to wonder what bizarre message the owner was trying to convey.
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It was a meeting-party, I had helped cooking pizzas. An artist left the city for the United States to do a mastery related to art and ceramics. A farewell for a crush.
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I have shared my time between my home town Helsinki and Brussels for over twenty years. This Joyëux Noel-photo was taken in my neighbourhood in Brussels. A couple of months later an almost complete lockdown was introduced. Some entrepreneurs limited their business hours and the number of people in their premises at one time. Some closed their doors altogether. Later during the pandemic, I went to stay in Finland for a long while. On returning to Brussels, it was a sign of normality to see these window paintings appearing again. Although I had never met the person who painted the Father Christmas and snowman in my photo, I felt happy that the guy had survived the pandemic, and continued making paintings in the neighbourhood. Riitta Oittinen, Finland
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I was working on a TV show. We were filming outside on a cold, rainy January night. I was soaked, as was everyone. I probably took this picture to show my boyfriend what a miserable night it was. We had 3 weeks left of filming when the show shut down in March 2020. I didn't wait for the industry to come back, instead I pursued an MFA in photography.
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This day I was setting up lightning for an upcoming portrait series in my atelier. As I was alone, I had to help myself with this installation in order to make progress with the preparations.
Olivier C. Meriel France.jpeg)
On January 10, 2020 I took this smartphone photo of an apartment block next to the one I was living in at that time in Munich. This image taken at night hints at the things to come, when people were isolated at home for months to come, due to Covid 19 related lockdowns and restrictions. Im March, I managed to get the last airplane to Seoul, where I also lived with my Korean wife. Unlike Germany, South Korea did never need lockdowns, but I could not leave the country for 3 years. So I started my photo project PAUSE to portray my local grungy neighborhood at the end of December 2020, Germany just had gone in another lockdown while South Korea had just introduced tighter rules because of the pandemic. Both countries had around 1000 Covid 19 cases a day then. In Germany that number meant deaths, while in Korea it was the number of new infections in the whole country. Human life in those dark times was happening only privately behind doors and windows. Shops, bars, restaurants were either completely shut down or closed early. Usually busy nightlife and entertainment areas were deserted, and of course it helped that it was icy cold outside too. Since that time in late December, I often walked around the Yangcheongu district after midnight to photograph the eerily silent city , which looked like an abandoned theater set. I was interested in the empty spaces of the (disappearing) neighborhoods full of patina, history and human traces. The longer I roamed the same streets night after night, the more I felt like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day”. It seemed that I got to know every street, every corner and every stone in my neighborhood. Ironically, while I was photographing the abandoned streets and dystopian urban spaces of Seoul, I was actually much safer here than if I had been staying in my native Germany. PAUSE was finished in March of 2022, when restrictions in both countries were lifted.
Matthias Ley Germany
On our last day at the Selva di Val Gardena ski resort, we went to a beautiful restaurant, Rifugio Emilio Comici. It was freezing cold. We sat on the open terrace, ate and enjoyed the world around us.
Natali Glef Ukraine
It was a freezing cold night on the 10th of January 2020. The thermometer was in the -20 degree range, the dark sky was starry, the field was covered in a high layer of snow. The photo trap was activated in night vision mode, ready to capture the secret wildlife, a glimpse of life in the silent night.
Ester Vonplon Switzerland
ON JANUARY 10, 2020. THEODORO ARRIVED AT OUR HOUSE, TODAY THEO IS 5 YEARS OLD WHICH MAKES US REMEMBER THAT DIFFICULT TIME, THINKING THAT MONTHS LATER WE WOULD BE CONFINED IN MANDATORY QUARANTINE
Carloman Macidiano Céspedes Riojas Peru
I letter written to our daughter from our Israeli family who were leaving after a very special visit. The letter on the right was written in Hebrew by one of the cousins.
Jess Levey USA
Through the photographs and videos stored in my phone, I can pinpoint the exact day I first, and quite consciously, decided to listen to country music. It was during the lockdown. I was alone in my cold Berlin flat, the kind with no central heating. Escapism became the only way to deal with reality, and country music—a genre I’d previously dismissed—emerged as its soundtrack. Somehow, amidst the irony, it worked. Country wasn’t the only discovery of those days. Disco, too, unexpectedly resurfaced, glittering like an old friend you hadn’t realised you’d been missing. It filled the space in the evenings, rescuing me from the flatness of isolation with its relentless optimism. But it was Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden” that stuck. A song I recorded during a live performance just to send to a friend, more curious about his reaction than the music itself. Yet that innocent, almost saccharine tune returned to me, time and again, softening those long, dark, hermetic evenings. The chorus played on a loop: I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometime...
Yan Chmarau Belarus
那年我還住在台灣，打工存去英國留學的錢。當天我一如往常在上班的路上，途中看到了地上有個牙齒矯正器，出於直覺拍下了這張照片，因為覺得突兀的有點好笑。 台灣是第一個開始對Covid警覺的國家，因此這張照片拍下後不到一個月政府就開始叫大家戴口罩了。那個月恰逢過農曆年，我也在那個月遇到現在的伴侶。我們一起經歷了疫情隔離，到現在還在一起。
Mingyi Sung Taiwan
Past the borderlines that delimit the Peruvian highlands, before the desolation struck on the already desolated. Ayacucho, 2020.
Samantha Avila Peru
Here follows an itemised description of a photograph, taken with an iPhone 7 on the 10th of January 2020. The head is an African painted clay object, bought in Maun in Botswana and repaired after a fall. I was told it was used as a passport but I'm not so sure that's the truth. The book cover is 'When I Was a Boy' by Katrien de Blauwer. Underneath is a Macbook Air from 2013.
Gordon Spooner France
This photo was taken on the road from Amsterdam, where I was living at the time, to the northern part of the country, as my ex-boyfriend of seven years and I were on our way to a family birthday. I remember feeling restless and uncertain, though I couldn't pinpoint why, but the moon and the light that afternoon gave me a sense of happiness. A month later, the relationship ended.
Lidewij Mulder Netherlands
I had stayed up late for the release of a song by one of my favorite artists, and I had it on repeat all day that day. The lyrics really resonated with me at the time, so I took a picture of them. Over the past four years, this song and those words have shaped some of my relationships with people I've met. The song is called Isohel, which is basically a line drawn on a map that connects places with the same amount of sunshine. To me, it felt like a reminder that we’re all connected, even through something as simple as how long the sun shines in different places. That thought is comforting.
Hiba Dahibi Morocco
I took my Mazda 5 Protege down a trail I really shouldn't have. I had to find reception in the woods before calling a towing company called God's Boot.
Alden Wallace Canada
A friday night out with a friend in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia before we had any clue.
Suniko Bazargarid Mongolia
Friday dinner at my best friend's: he enthusiastically tried a new method of cooking a steak just to medium. While he was cooking, the sun set in a warm embrace from the kitchen window.
Corinne Biglietti France
While walking through a neighborhood in Chinatown, Los Angeles, I saw this fruitful bunch of cacti overflowing through a fence.
Anna Sophia Moltke USA
Meanwhile, I dropped coins into the carnival claw machine to try my luck.
Becky Jaffe USA
The photo was taken on Siquijor, Philippines. A view from our terrace. At that moment we were not yet prepared for what would await us in the course of our journey. We - Feli & Pepita - had just arrived in Siquijor and shortly afterwards travelled on via Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and actually planned to go back from Hong Kong to Germany. During our journey, we took photos of young people in their rooms and interviewed them. Some of the photos were later published in the book "IN MY ROOM - A portrait of a generation in lockdown" and were honored by UNICEF - photo of the year in 2021. But we didn't know that on 10 January 2020, only when we arrived in Singapore did the situation worsen and we flew back from Bangkok earlier than planned. Nobody realised that we would be facing two years of lockdowns and working from home. The view of the sea and the sunset was a very happy moment on our trip.
Feli & Pepita Germany
A perfect day. Travel, views, family, in nature, on the snow. Couldn't be better.
Elli Bardas Australia
It was the 10th of January 2020 and the first full moon of the new year was rising. Wolf Moon, named after howling wolves. The skies were clear and with shades of purple and somewhere else in the world the soon famous COVID genome was being released. Non of us would have had guessed that in two months we would not be seeing skies from our window offices, because we would be on lockdowned in our houses.
Teresa Oliveira da Silva Portugal
Few weeks after the mass uprising took place in Bangladesh, this boy injured from bullets stuck in his eye. He was an electrician and wants to go back to his old life but he is partially blind now.
Asad Bangladesh
This image was a still frame from a video I made on the 6 train in Manhattan, New York City, on January 10, 2020. The image was of a stranger, but someone who looked just like me. New York City (and the world) later closed down in March, just after I had left to go home from a trip. Unknowingly and unwittingly on that day in January, I had recorded an image that I would later use each year as a nostalgic reminder of what once was, and titled the piece "In Transit.
Sara Silks USA
Although she’s caught me, I can’t help but take photos of my daughter sleeping - it is a rare moment of calm, time to reflect and enjoy her while she’s still and not flitting like a hummingbird on a mission always ahead of me. I remember this morning, though. She had just turned 5 the day after Christmas and winter break had just ended. With her new big girl bed, it was unusual for her to end up in my mine and I treasured the gift. Despite the new year always delivering a fair share of anxiety for me, I felt a sense of deep peace lying next to her, holding her and watching her sleep safely as we embarked on another year. Whatever was to come felt pretty hopeful, even simple, when looking down at a little sleeping person, dreaming in holiday pajamas. Whenever I felt those relieved feelings, I took the sleeping pictures to remind me - mementos that everything will be ok for her in this world, she will be safe and I can protect and guide her. This was my memento taken the morning of January, 10, 2020.
Sara Markese USA
Meeting my Daughter with her brother in Neutral Space since 2016.
MTA Italy
As part of my usual morning routine, I ran from my home through the forested trails of Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. I exited the dark forest onto 300 feet of shimmering shoreline along the Salish Sea, where I encountered an unexpectedly vibrant beach-volleyball net. It was adorned with over 100 pink, red, white, and yellow lilies, roses, and chrysanthemums, as well as a picture of a beach volleyball player in action. It turned out to be part of a beautiful memorial service for 44-year-old Sophy L. Math, a beloved beach-volleyball player in the greater Seattle community. Math had drowned just a few days prior, when his inflatable raft capsized in the waters off a beach park in Mukilteo, WA. According to The Seattle Times, Math was “one of the most beloved members" of Seattle's volleyball community, known for his inclusivity in the sport. A Facebook post invited fellow players and friends/family to Math's beach memorial at Golden Gardens Park, where they planned to share stories of him around beach bonfires, rain or shine. The volleyball net, with its multicolored flowers, transformed into a virtual rainbow that stretched across the sand – a poignant and apropos visual remembrance of a person who made a difference in many people's lives.
Ellen Craft USA
It was my first trip with my boyfriend. We met through Instagram in 2019 and finally dared to meet in January. The agreed date was January 9th; he's from Quito, Ecuador, and I'm from Lima, Peru. We met in Cuenca, Ecuador. It was the 'halfway point.' On our second day together, he suggested going to Cajas National Park. We spent all day there, surrounded by lots of greenery and water. That photo was taken inside the park. In total, we spent 10 days together. Our plan was for him to visit Lima in March or April. But then the pandemic hit. Now we've known each other for almost 5 years
Paola Jimenez Peru
La luz del sol entraba al mediodía. 12:24. No recuerdo si me duché a esa hora o la luz hizo que use la cámara del teléfono, como suele ser. 0°17'26.7"S 78°27'07.6"W
Alejo Reinoso Ecuador
Victory in diversity
Ganiu Adeyinka Adebayo Nigeria
The desolation of Enghaveparken, Vesterbro, Copenhagen - normally vibrant with live - on 10th January 2020 at 17:25.
Kasper Bergholt Denmark
Broken angel. Tämä enkeli jökötti paikoillaan meidän pihassa vuodesta 2006 saakka. Se kesti auringon, kuumuuden, sateet, tuiskut ja pakkaset kantaen urheasti lyhtyä kädessään. Kattoremonttia se ei kestänyt. Uuden vuoden jälkeen remonttiporukka saapui paikalle, ja alkoi viskelemään vanhoja kattotiiliä alas katolta. Siinä rytäkässä myös enkeli otti siipeensä. Nyt se on taas liimattu kasaan, ja seisoo entisellä paikallaan. Hiukan rujompana tosin. Olikohan tämä enne tulevasta?
Noisy Lux Finland
Before pandemic, my daughter goes to school from 7 am to 2 pm, then suddenly a pandemic occurs. This made a big difference for my daughter. She must lose the world she likes, the world of school along with her friends. She had to go back home, spend time with her book, her friends with virtually and she had to meet me all the time. i saw something missing from the world of my daughter , but in the midst of that irreplaceable loss, my daughter began to fill in the blanks by learning and playing.
Idealita Indonesia
Photography taken in Castro, Chiloe - Chile.
Barbara Oettinger Chile
On January 10, 2020, I was relaxing at home in Côte d'ivoire , in West Africa holding a Budweiser beer for the first time. The brand had recently arrived in my country, and I was eager to try it while unwinding with a video game. At that moment, everything felt normal,just another day spent at home. I had no idea that, on the very same day, the viral genome sequence of what would become known as COVID-19 was released. I think this mundane photo captures a moment of peace before the world was turned upside down by the pandemic. It’s a memory of life as it was, before a new reality reshaped our everyday routines.
JonArt Côte d'Ivoire
I was in a place known as Chicken Village, close to Đà Lạt, in Vietnam. I went there to see this huge chicken statue. The legend says a girl from the village went to the mountain to find a 9-spur chicken that her lover's family demanded to get married. She couldn't find it and died. Afterward, the villagers built a chicken statue in her honor. While I was taking this photograph, a young couple was getting married a few meters away.
Lorena Ruiz Pellicero Spain
on the washing line
Filip D'hooghe Belgium
Right before the pandemic "officially hit" in the United States, I took these lengthy photo walks around various Los Angeles neighborhoods, documenting suburban artifacts for a project called Let's Not and Say We Did, which later became a small run book. This image did not make the cut...
Avital Oehler Israel
After 10 years abroad, I return home and take a full-time job at a film company, albeit with a low salary and little time off. The daunting task of relocating begins, and I dread dealing with public services in Greece. At the tax office, I learn I have €5,000 in debts, which is absurd since I wasn’t tax-registered there. They inform me it’s related to my car, which I imported to Switzerland. Five years ago, I paid to change the plates, and the Swiss administration returned the Greek plates, but the Greek authorities never unregistered them! I take a day off to the Ministry of Transport in Athens to resolve this. I’ve been warned not to handle it myself and to pay intermediaries, but I refuse. On January 10, 2020, at 7 a.m., I find myself in a chaotic office filled with angry citizens and intermediaries, with no clear signs or queues. I feel lost until I spot my old car plates sitting on a desk. I approach an employee and say, “Hi, these plates used to be mine.” She dismisses me, but I insist, showing my documents and explaining the situation. After checking, she says, “These plates… are a pending matter.” At the moment, I perceived this as a sign of good luck. These were the only plates to be seen in this whole hell. Yet nothing changed to how hopelessly I had to struggle to find justice. I can’t help though but laugh at the thought of this employee who received the official documents from Switzerland and simply decorated their desk with my plates and continued their day.
Antigoni Papantoni Greece
I was playing with Snapchat filters on my grandma after a lovely chat with her about my NYE in Berlin.
Natalia Poniatowska Poland
A person graffitis a door of an abandoned building in Tower Hamlets borough of east London.
Marika Kochiashvili Georgia
While thinking about January 10, 2020, I remembered walking in Karaköy, Istanbul. It was almost sunset, and I could see Galata Tower framed between the split trunk of a tree in front of me. I liked how the tower suddenly appeared through the branches, and how the dry branches looked against the sky.
Berk Kır Turkey
Posted to Instagram on January 10th 2020. The caption reads simply TOILET OF LONDON. I have no recollection of which pub this toilet is in; it may have been in a restaurant. Plausibly an Italian restaurant? I assume I was drunk.
Matt Hulse United Kingdom
Тhe flying child
Svilen Nachev Bulgaria
That day I was in Cebu looking for a barbershop before I flew back to Manila after my corporate shoot. I saw my reflection in the glass and took a selfie because it looked like I had double exposure on my pants. Just a spontaneous walk trip. I am also clueless that COVID-19 was discovered that day! People seemed to have a normal life without wearing masks until the end of February. I just know that from March 2020 onwards people had a lot of time taking selfies in their homes. We had no clue there would be a new normal. Those months through the year are challenging. Gladly, we're back to normal having normal selfies outside our homes.
Allen Villaflor Philippines
This old box from 1970's was once used to carry a special clock for racing pigeons. I filled it with an old purse that contained love messages from its owners unknown past.
Melissa Mahon Ireland
Am 10. Jänner 2020 haben mein bester Freund und ich in der Mittagspause eine Galerie besucht, wo wir Andy Warhol trafen. :-)
Alois Loidl Austria
I was studying photography in Paris in 2020 and this photo was part of our first storytelling class. We had tabout 10 minutes to tell a story in 4 pictures taken with our phone and to come back with a variety of options, so that you could realize how the story would be different or better with another photo.
Anouk Flesch Luxembourg
Flower blooms in front of my class capture my attention
Sana Maqsood Pakistan
The day a new journey has begun.
Theodor Călin Romania
Ironically I took a picture of my desk that day. Foreshadowing the new age of working from home.
Sebastian Knittel Germany
The world is upside down, everything stops
Simona Minutolo Italy
It's quite ironic that I don't remember anything from that evening in SoHo. Who was I with or what I was doing is a blur like it never even happened
Kristina Shakht Russia
I was in my then home in Rome, rummaging through my papers in the archives, and I came across a postcard from about forty or fifty years ago. This postcard was part of a series of old family photographs belonging to an aunt of mine whom I was very fond of, she died of leukemia in 2018. I had intended to work with this material to build a project on her memory, but the back of this postcard caught my attention: the trace, the stroke of a doodle, perhaps a message from her. It was the discovery of another dimension to immerse myself in, where for a moment the space of this postcard seemed infinite and indefinable.
Alessio Pellicoro Italy
I was in London that day. It was a long awaited trip. I was very struck by the many offices in the city center and the large number of people working both early in the morning and late at night.
Tutta Gnutta Russia
On my way to work in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Haohui Liu China
I was shooting portraits of the lovely Jaclyn that day. We shot yoga poses, shots with gels, and shots in different outfits. This back garden portrait is probably my favorite.
Colin Ward USA
It was an air brush artwork on a canal cleaning lorry.
Tobias Meier Germany
Durante le mie continue e lunge passeggiate in solitaria, nella tarda mattinata del 10 Gennaio 2020 mi sono imbattuto in questa visione. Un cuscino, ad apparenza di uso domestico, nei sedili posteriori di una vecchia macchina parcheggiata al lato di una strada. Quel colore così forte rispetto alla tonalità tenue del sedile restituiva un piacevole contrasto visivo e la luce che rimbalzava tra dentro e fuori lo accendeva ancora di più, come se stesse dicendo di voler essere osservato. La mia attenzione è stata subito rapita e non ho potuto altro che soffermarmi su quel cuscino, stando minuti ad osservarlo e fotografarlo con il mio telefono. In quegli istanti ho iniziato a pensare alla storia dietro quel cuscino, o quantomeno alla storia della persona o delle persone che hanno o hanno avuto quel cuscino e ad un possibile motivo della sua presenza lì. E' singolare come un oggetto "domestico", quindi formalmente estranea rispetto al contesto che la ospita, fosse così in armonia con il paesaggio interno di essa. Questo incontro mi ha fatto pensare a quanto noi siamo artefici e allo stesso tempo "manipolatori" del paesaggio intorno e a quanto questo possa cambiare in relazione alle nostre azioni. Al tempo stesso, mi sono reso conto di quanto sia importante e determinante il conferimento dell'uso che l'essere umano compie rispetto a tutti gli oggetti che lo circondano e di quanto questo processo cambi la percezione degli stessi nello spazio.
Filippo Barbero Italy
I was thrilled to have just opened the box that contained my first real Leica, the digital CL, and I was looking around my house for anything to serve as a subject for some test shots. This is literally the 2nd shot I took (the first was a jar of peanut butter). This image of an everyday object--my wife's jade plant--could not prepare us for what was coming.
Carl Baum USA
Festive Kontraktova Square in Kyiv, decorated with a giant "teapot" (kumanets), which "reproduces" a traditional Ukrainian clay product of folk art actually, as then, so now, I am interested in the "visual" in the city. Thank you for an interesting project!
Andrey Nedzelnytsky Ukraine
This photo was taken at a very special spot in Lyon, on the "Grande Côte," at the top of the Croix-Rousse hill, which I used to walk up every day on my way home from work. I adore this view; it's never the same, and I love sharing it with the people close to me. I feel lucky to live in such a warm, welcoming place and to have this beautiful view over the city.
Francis Malapris France
View of Guaraíbas Lagoon, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Northeast Brazil. This was the last vacation trip my family took, then the pandemic came and we also no longer had the time and especially the money to do something like this.
Lucas Rebelo Brazil
In 1945, East Prussia was divided between the USSR and Poland, and Königsberg became the Soviet city of Kaliningrad. I had no connection to the places on the Baltic Sea coast, just like the first Russian settlers who came here after the war. I came to this region for a week-long intensive course, which was supposed to result in a small series of photographs. The project never happened, and instead, I returned home with a broken friendship, with being fired from my job, and a 180-degree turn in my life — right before the quarantine started. I know exactly which day I took this photo, because that day I met two friends on the Baltic Sea coast. In their youth, they had moved to this region, which was foreign to them at the time, and they remained friends for over 50 years, no longer imagining their lives anywhere else. With one of them, I took a long walk on the beach in the rain, and I saw this improvised bridge. I have many photos from that day and from the entire trip, but on some very deep level, this image conveys my feelings and experiences connected to these women, the Kaliningrad region, and my own experiences at that moment in my life.
Daria Nazarova Russia
The photo was not taken by chance, my father is at the table here, eating. I haven't seen him for a long time, life threw me to different places of the globe and missed him all the time, Now the time has come when I can be with him and communicate with him, and cooking food for him is sacred to me, I pay tribute to my ancestors.
Olga Malinina Russia
A damp evening in Heidelberg, Germany. I had just arrived in the city to shoot more of my project, GAYROPA, where I arranged to spend a few days with a Tunisian drag performer, and activist granted asylum, and living in the city.
Bradley Secker United Kingdom
In my work I register my existence with one photo a day, with an analogue compact camera at arms-length since October of 2003. When I read this open call, I was very curious which photo I had taken of myself that day. It was a photo in the hallway of my house in Arnhem-NL. Judging by the light, it must be taken somewhere in the morning. I decided to show the original photo, because I usually edit them afterwards on the computer. In this case I like it the way it is.
Lique Schoot Netherlands
I visited this exhibition by Roger Ballen that day here in Brussels. His solo exhibition was very impressive, with installations and other quite disturbing works. He inspired me very much concerning my own work, and this reworked image, I photographed it, so it must have made quite an impression. Copyright is his, so don't think you can use it just like that..
Sander de Wilde Netherlands
Invisible. This photo was taken at the world trade center on January 10th 2020. I am not in the world trade center often, but I happened to be there that day early in the morning for a shoot. I have lived in NY for over 15 years and my heart breaks every time I come across the unhoused in my city. This photo is a juxtaposition of the clean, modern, futuristic architecture, NY ideal but the reality of life here is a lot of people are living like this person sitting here, barely surviving, barely noticed. This photo also for me represents how a lot of people felt post covid, extremely isolated and unseen, retreating into themselves amongst this vast cold interior womb that capitalism has given us as a place to feel big but mostly to feel small. The meaning behind the world trade center monument is “absence made visible” I think in NYC humanity is often invisible.
Hiss USA
A construction site in front of my home. A sewage pipe had broken a few days before, flooding my basement. It was found that the roots of a tree had shattered the pipe, so the municipality had to cover the cost of repair, which was a relief. But looking back, this event foreshadowed the turbulent year that 2020 turned out to become.
Philipp Zechner Germany
Cyclists are traveling by cycles through a rural path by a leafless tree in the afternoon.
Chinmoy Biswas India
I took a fast train from Kings Cross to Margate with my niece Zoe who was visiting from Australia. We had planned this trip the day before hoping to visit the Turner Prize Exhibition at Turner Contemporary. Zoe was very excited to be in London although a relationship had ended earlier that year back home. She was seeking out new experiences while preparing a PHD proposal. Her subject was dance performance within the art gallery. We walked quickly along the sea front feeling the cool air on our faces. I took this photograph as we were heading towards a small shack on the sand where we hoped to buy mussels and cockles. We were starving after quite an exhausting morning. A beer went down very well. We talked about our thoughts on the exhibition afterwards as we sat in front of a hot fire in a local pub. I was desperately lonely living in the moment remembering and forgetting. I was glad for the chance to get away and so happy to be with family but there was not enough time. I wished that we had booked a room to stay the night. I never got use to the way people behaved in London in this big city when it came to going out. I grew up in small towns where you could take your time. Switching from one experience to the next rapidly always left me nauseous and needing a good cup of tea and a nap to recover.
Shelley Margaret Theodore Australia
Meet Sep, my cat. He’s my shadow and loves me. So much, he sometimes chases his 2 siblings away. He catches small animals and brings them to me. His warm and - I believe - loving way he looks at me gives me comfort, and hope that we still can find connection. After all these years, post covid and in the middle of wars, I hope we find connection to each other and to the planet back as well.
Marjolein Vinkenoog Netherlands
I only took one photo on January 10, 2020. I was driving home from a friend's house on a back road I'd never driven. I had seen the sign on my way, and when I passed it again on my return, I took a photo through the window. My son is Deafblind, and I was wondering if I should consider having a sign put on our road. I never did.
Cozette Russell USA
This is a photo of my dog Bert, wearing socks. It was a lighthearted moment that perfectly captured the simplicity and joy of everyday life. Since then, everything has changed, and today my beloved dog is gone.
Audineh Asaf USA
On 1/10/2020 I was having an opening reception for a small exhibition of my "Motion Studies" lightbox photographs. It was the first solo show I had had in 6 years and I thought it was the start of a regular series but Covid slowed down my progress as an artist. San Francisco, USA.
Ari Salomon USA
Artist Project working with David Austen, work ongoing including films.
Ben Stockley United Kingdom
Ukiah, California. I was traveling back home to Arcata with my dad after visiting my family in the Bay Area. It was the last time I saw them for over a year, by far the longest I've ever been away. I didn't even leave Humboldt County until the vaccine came out, and my parents' home was the first place I went. This was on a dumpster outside the Grace Hudson Museum where we stopped along the way. I'd never been there before, her paintings and basket collection were beautiful, but I appreciated and admired this local girl as well.
Jacquelyn Stuber USA
Caught in a net from China.
Wit McKay USA
I had spent time the previous week immersed in Laurie Anderson's voice by listening to interviews, spoken word tracks, and her 1981 hit "O Superman." This song then proceeded to cycle endlessly through my mind. On January 10th, I made a number of screenshots of the accompanying music video, including this one. I also took a picture of the corner of my roof during an early afternoon downpour. The raindrops in that picture look just like the white marks dappling this globe.
Leslie Hickey USA
My photographer friend and I had been discussing photographing trees in winter. He had kindly gifted me some of his personal darkroom prints. Later I was researching archives of random slide collections when I came across "Lords Bushes", a glass slide taken in May '94. I immediately purchased the slide and sent it to my friend.
Alexander English United Kingdom
Dieses Bild ist zwar nicht mit meinem Handy entstanden, ich habe es aber am 10.01.2020 mit meiner Mamiya 7 aufgenommen. Es symbolisiert für mich etwas das sich ausbreitet und alles betrifft.
Francesco Futterer Germany
We were in Naples for a short vacation. January 10, 2020 was our last day before the flight back to Berlin. We had looked at Pompeii: the ruins, the mosaics, the luxury. In the evening we went up to Mount Vesuvius to say goodbye to Naples. That was our last vacation for a long time.
Anja Maier Germany
A little town in Colombia called Villa de Leyva, just a regular afternoon in the main square.
Leonora Ishizaki Peru
I just got back to Oxford for my last in-person term until Fall 2021. I was heading out the door to go to the gym and then attend class. It’s really cold in Oxford so I wrapped my scarf around my face, and when I checked my phone I decided to send a quick picture to a friend.
Léonie Sonderegger Switzerland
Attached is the only image I made that day, a screenshot of my phone Chrome tabs. I'd just gotten my first check since yet another miscarriage & was scouting items to dress the new me I needed next to be. I'd also gotten hooked on perfume, you can see top right a Luckyscent shopping cart with an Ambre Loup sample, which I adored. Soon bought a full bottle. Later that year I would lose my sense of smell to COVID.
Emily Raw USA
after spending a day of looking and thinking about art, my mind sees things in a particular way. in this photo a particular alignment of color, shape and lights: a street lamp, the moon, architecture, and a strange yet precise light transposition effect from the camera. i had seen the vija celmins exhibition "to fix the image in memory" at the met breuer. i also visited the museum of modern art.
Eric Janke USA
Self-portrait, January 10, 2020 Celebrating a big family wedding in Houston, Texas dancing toward midnight with blasting disco and neon lights.
Linda Troeller USA
Inside for pizza
Pasqualina Laurenzana Italy
The blurred figure on the other side feels distant, separated – not just by the glass, but by an impending sense of isolation we couldn’t yet understand. That night, we shared closeness, unaware of how fragile it was, and that soon our connections get redefined. For me, the iPhone image freezes a fleeting moment of togetherness, just before everything changed.
Theresa Maria Forthaus Germany
On this day we made a pact to have drinks at the same spot in 5 years time, or if it has closed, and the world is not the same, then we would drink beer from tin cans in the park. Surely that would be possible. Photo as evidence to confirm the moment, and seeing as we're both large format photographers, the state of inebriation. Matan was almost hospitalised from Covid but pulled through and is still shooting 10x8's as if it's going out of fashion AND as if he's won the lottery.
Tom Hatton United Kingdom
I don't remember that day, but it looks like it was pretty normal. I was at home, preparing lunch, it seems. The light in the kitchen was beautiful and I took a spontaneous picture, like I usually do, without rearranging anything.
Irina Kholodna Germany
Had found this original painting in a charity shop for less than a fiver so hung it in the bedroom and took an iPhone pic from my bed so I could research the artist
NDR United Kingdom
Looking back at the sunset behind me, on my way from my job on a citibike
Greeshma Chenni Veettil India
The Sun may rise in the east but it sets in a final location" - Californication, RHCP People watch the Pacific's waves roll in in carefree California on the 10th of January 2020.
Pierre Banoori France
I took this photo with my phone of the photo I captured in the morning of my Spanish friends Alex and Bruno outside the Hackney Town Hall in London.
Juan Carlos Verona Spain
James Montgomery playing harp with his band at One Longfellow Square in Portland, ME 04021; a great intimate local venue; nothing like the blues to cheer you up on a winter's night!
C E Morse USA
I went to see a performance in an offspace in Lausanne.
Thalles Piaget Switzerland
These unfinished structures are in my hometown in Utah. In the months before these images were shot, I made repeated notes to document them -- they were miles apart, but felt like siblings to each other. I remember that on January 10, 2020, I made the decision to go out and finally take some pictures of them. I shot these images while feeling briefly inspired (I think I was maybe listening to New Order?) and felt pleased with the results; it was for the most part, a normal day. Once I got the news, I couldn't help but wonder what would become of those structures, because now it seemed like they wouldn't ever be finished. With benefit of hindsight, they now feel foreboding of the years to come: skeletal, both a reminder of both the fragile nature of our bodies, as well as the hollow feelings that accompany the loneliness of an empty building. I was right about their future; both of these structures look the same today as they did then.
James Talbot USA
I have a tiny Russian matrioshka doll that my cat knocked off the dresser and it landed on the floor standing up.
Victoria Crayhon USA
“The Light at the Falls Bridge” This is the last photograph from a series of photographs that I took on my way home from work each day while stuck in traffic on the Falls Bridge . The Falls Bridge in Philadelphia is a steel Pratt truss bridge that spans the Schuylkill River. The evening rush hour often occurred during twilight but during the winter, the sun was fully set and it was dark so I took a break from taking a picture each day. On January 10th, there was a full moon and I felt the urge to take a shot of it. It was the last photo I took on the bridge before lockdown and was the end of the series.
Rosalind Sutkowski USA
Late Night Snack" New York City NEW YORK, NEW YORK - January 10th: "Late Night Snack" A man ordering something to eat from a food cart in the Greenwich Village section of New York
Michael Young USA
Walking the Cumbrian Hills in England in the January sunshine, unaware that on this day the viral genome sequence of a novel virus was released. The tiny presence in the expansive landscape unknowingly foreshadows a future global 2019-nCoV pandemic of isolation. The top third of the photo is a gentle blue with light puffy cloud. The middle distance rises to the cold mountains near Blenathra Saddleback as the much loved figure walks up to Eycott Hill.
Graeme Skinner United Kingdom
I went to Leipzig to visit the University to see if I can imagine studying there. I had no idea.
Karla Schradi Germany
I was working as a waiter on Cape Cod which I detested and couldn’t wait to leave, thinking it would be soon. I left California in late 2017 with my dog, on my way to Portugal via short stay in New York. I am a filmmaker and visual artist. Cape Cod was stifling mentally, spiritually and visually to me, used to the mountains of Northern California Sierra Wilderness and Southern Cali deserts. Too many little trees, flat, covered in housing, puritan head space. I was fired from three jobs for speaking out over abusive work and soon realized it was normal. I had lived in New York before but as soon as covid hit I was trapped through the year and had to cancel my plans there. Eventually I realized my dog was too old for air travel and drove to a South Carolina horse farm to continue working until he died, which was late 2021. I am now living in Portugal and miss my old dog but have a Portuguese rescue, a border terrier who was chained in a yard for seven years and never been in a house or had hot food. After two years he is normal, but whenever I raise my arm too fast he cringes or growls as if I might hit him.
Cecelia Chapman Portugal
Nachts entschied ich mich, noch vor dem schlafen gehen den Kompost rauszubringen. Wir sehen hier den Komposthaufen auf einem Einödhof in Niederbayern, Deutschland. Essensreste, Erde, Gras, kleines Geäst.
Ossian Fraser United Kingdom
with my daughter i was in the berlin zoo this day...didn-t know much about the virus at this time...took that pict.
exsample Germany
The last day of our New Year vacations in Vienna. As usual before flight we were worried little bit. It was that day, day when I have seen news about 2019-nCov. I saw the news,but I still did not see the danger. On the shot made on 10 of January 2020 you see the traffic light in Vienna. That day it was just cute picture, the years later I see people in the box. We ourselves have became these people in box later, isolated but still loving each other. Through the years I understand that it was strange day. Not just the last day of vacations, but the last day of our ordinary life.
Alexander Chetverikov Russia
On January 10, 2020 I was working on a photo collage story about Donald Trump and his impending impeachment trial. This is one of the images showing Adam Schiff as the police officer who at that time was head of the House Intelligence Committee and Mike Pompeo, who is portrayed as the criminal and who at that time was the Secretary of State and a supporter of Donald Trump.
Susan Weiss USA
I was walking to get lunch during my workday and I saw a car. The hood of the car had been hand painted with overlapping geometric designs. Overall the car was not in good condition. It may have been drivable but I doubt it would pass any sort of official inspection. I took this picture because I wanted to remember these details. I wanted to return to these forms.
Gregory Gentert USA
I somehow took a picture of my Medizinschrank in my bathroom.
Marvin Zilm Switzerland
a photo from my at-the-time daily morning commute. a view from the G-train heading from the windsor terrace area of brooklyn, up to the terminus station in long island city queens. i always admired this particular curve along this route; it represented the last views of above-ground brooklyn, with the intermittent screeching of the train's body wrestling along the tracks. as most of my repeated-topic images, i would often use this short stretch of view and time, both the outgoing towards work and returning home, to evaluate mood, demeanor, changes in the atmosphere, the slow inevitable progress of the city's expansion, and the tidal shifts in my emotional state. i remember the weather being cold and average for the time of year in NYC, and this was the sole photo i made that day.
C. Bay Milin USA
On January 10, 2020, I visited The Shed in New York City to see a retrospective exhibition of Agnes Denes (b. 1931), a prominent figure in Conceptual and Environmental art. The exhibition, titled "Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates," showcased over 150 works in various media spanning Denes's 50-year career, including three new pieces commissioned by The Shed. Denes gained international attention in the 1960s and 1970s, creating works influenced by science, mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, ecology, and psychology to analyze and document humanity and its challenges. Her theories about climate change and life in our ever-evolving, technology-driven world demonstrate a remarkably prescient understanding of contemporary society. She was truly an artist ahead of her time, drawing attention to the ecological crisis caused by human actions, which we now refer to as climate change. One of her most iconic pieces, created in 1982, is "Wheatfield—A Confrontation." In this monumental work, she transformed the land that would become New York's Battery Park City into a two-acre wheat field. The photograph I'm submitting is of Denes' "A Model for A Forest for New York," a proposal to convert a 120-acre landfill in Far Rockaway, Queens, into a park for all New Yorkers. This ambitious project aimed to plant 100,000 trees to help address respiratory health issues in the area, turning a barren space into a thriving forest.
Bruce Morrow USA
I was having a trip in Shanghai at that time. People still lived in a normal life and seemed not knowing about the virus yet. It looked like the milkshake had foreseen the consequences, when you could not control the liquid in the container, it will blow out.
Iris Su China
Estábamos en casa y nuestra gata Lana parecía inquieta. Ninguno de nosotros pensó que estaríamos mucho tiempo en casa encerrados.
Ruben Muñoz Spain
On a regular basis, as a calming self care routine I make some herbal tea. I just love the tea that has reflecting messages attached to the tea bad string. This one was profound at the time, so I took a picture of it. A very enlightening message indeed.
Stacee Ryan USA
2020, I was in Leipzig working as a guest lecturer for contemporary photography in Leipzig and on the morning of January 10, I went to see the permanent exhibition “Our History, Dictatorship, and Democracy after 1945” organized by the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum The image of a tiny group of people gathered in peaceful protest at the GDR touched me. It was the Jena White Circle, a protest group formed around Hannelore and Rüdiger Studanski who wanted to make their applications to leave the country public. The ribbons that GDR citizens with pending applications to leave the country tie to their car aerials are white - a silent and yet visible sign of recognition for everyone. The photography was taken by the State Security (Stasi) Emigration is not always a voluntary act, nor is it free of various forms of violence. This photo means two things to me simultaneously: the right to demonstrate peacefully, the will of a group of people who show courage and the destiny of millions in the world who emigrate from their countries today, 30 years later.
lenikem Argentina
January 10th 2020, 3:47, private photo of the artist. On January 8th i turned 33. Celebrating it that Friday-night with a small group of friends. To be honest, I hardly celebrate my birthday, but 33 felt like such a silly number. As is the number on the Newton scale for boiling water; The world felt these weeks like a drop on a hot plate with a strange virus somewhere far away. All my friends felt it and went hard out that night, as they did the months after when the world coming to a stop. Here is a snapshot of the Butters always being the last-man-standing at parties; Me photographing my little brother posing with my friend Kevin who collapsed on his chair from drinking.
Robin Butter Netherlands
I forgot I took this picture. I guess life was still normal back then. Regarding to the other pictures on my feed, I must have been at the Ren Hang exhibition at c/o Berlin that day. Between photos of the exhibition and his work, I must have taken this picture. But like many other things that happened in the last years, I simply forgot.
Ilka Pappenscheller Germany
Two construction workers throwing bricks between each other at the top of my road.
Sophie Sherwood United Kingdom
El 10 de enero del 2020 fue una fecha feliz para mí porque ese día cumplí mi sueño de conocer la zona arqueológica de Tikal, en Guatemala. Pasé toda la jornada visitando las ruinas en medio de la naturaleza. A lo lejos se escuchaba el chillido de los monos internados en la selva: un sonido que se iba acentuando al caer la tarde y cada vez que recuerdo esa visita viene a mi mente por la profunda impresión que dejó en mí. Al revisar la fotografías que tomé ese día, esta en especial ha llamado mi atención porque ahora, después de más de cuatro años, pareciera un ensayo de lo que viviríamos algunas semanas más tarde: la distancia social y la convivencia en espacios abiertos.
Sandra Hernández Mexico
it looks like a absolutely normal day in Kunming, Yun Nan province in south of China at that time wearing a mask is a way to use in the cosplay
qi China
While walking along the beach in Asbury Park, NJ, USA, I photographed this woman wearing her mask and bundled up, on this cold, sunny day. Throughout this Covid-19 time, I always photographed those wearing masks and compiled a series of photographs, during this historic period of time.
Vivienne Maricevic USA
I spent the 10th of january 2020 in a photobook workshop at the Lichtblick School in cologne. Looking at the ceiling and taking this photographs, I could not anticipate that interior observations would soon become a core topic for many photographers during the lockdowns.
Uwe Bedenbecker Germany
In most villages of Iran, families differentiate between their daughters and sons. In these families, they usually value boys more and treat them with kindness because they believe that boys will provide for the family's expenses in the future. This photo is about a girl who lives in a poor family, and although she is 9 years old, she has to weave carpets to support the family's expenses, while the boys in this family do not work and only play game.
Malihe Iran
As I am wont to do, I chase after the moon especially on nights so crisp and clear. Here, sister Moon at half shines brightly over our mountain town in Southern Oregon, a tease almost directly above tip of evergreen. I remember being lost in grief and time, longing deeply for my sweet beloved whom I lost not even two months ago in November 2019 to chemo-radiation therapy. Little did i know, billions of unsuspecting souls are about to fall — many forever lost to us — under the spell of unprecedented deadly medical mandates. The peaceful visage here belies the anguish and turmoil that began almost precisely 2 months later, on March 10, 2020. I was at a drum circle when friends began to talk about the onslaught of a so-called ‘virus’. Watch out, I said, the vaxx is sure to come next. And sure as hell, it did.
e bee bantug USA
Pregnant, in Morocco, on holidays with our friends and our small kids. We spent three days in another continent, with all its newness, yet only 1:25 hours away from where I’m from.
Elo Vázquez Spain
Phil Crean,(me!), photographing the full moon rising above Izaña in the Parque Nacional de Las Cañadas del Teide on Tenerife.
Philip Thomas Crean Ireland
I was at my parents' home, which was the last time I was at my parents' home after the COVID-19 outbreak. There were fireworks in the village outside the window that night, probably because the Chinese Spring Festival was only ten days away. Everything is very festive and peaceful. I have loved watching fireworks since I was young, so I took photos with my phone when I heard the sound.
Nie Xin China
This is a view of my former room, taken the 10th of January at dusk. It is a very common image, yet quite significant in my personal story: while the world were at the dawn of an unprecedented upheaval, mine collapsed two months before with the unexpected passing of my father. I always linked the two events, as if the world could not turn right after this loss. This has led me to a blank perception — a veil had been threw between my ineffable sorrow and a weirdly continuing everyday. While I was used to frantically snap things with my phone — actually, an average of 50 pictures per day over the past decade, exalted by the potentialities of every tiny corner of my surroundings, I was no longer able to take any. An indefinite and blurry spiral stood in the way between my gaze and my environment. This specific picture, as average as it looks, was an attempt to give substance back to time, in the face of an immense resistance to let it go on — a small breach where I allowed a piece of the outside in, taming what protruded from a required domestic cocoon where all I was longing was to disappear. The steeple in its bridal garb, the waves of clouds, the warmth of a few purring homes, have perhaps contributed to awakening my eyes in this parallel period so far from the world.
Flora Gaal France
Unwinding from substitute teaching for a colleague that week, I made a screenshot of my non smart TV with my Samsung S8. Season 18 of Project Runway was halfway through, and never did I consider that Geoffrey Mac would win the season, only because Mr Mac had such a consistent habit of getting in his/their own way. Still, I cheered for Mac. One month after this sofa snap, I thought I had an extremely bad flu, and decided to stop working at the end of February. Only when I lost my sense of smell did I consider that I may have Covid19, but it still seemed unlikely. I was already masking. From then on I was in bed coughing until my back hurt for two weeks. When I finally felt better and went out for a walk, New York City had officially shut down the day before, so on March 16 or 17 I walked into a city that felt abandoned through a silent apocalypse. That day I walked 10 miles, maybe 11. Took me the whole day, I was so bruised it hurt me to breathe. In June, the tests showed that I did have Covid 19. This image brings memories of discussing Project Runway with friends, the comfort foods I sought, and how I never watched so much blasted TV in my whole life than during the pandemic.
Patricia Silva Portugal
Home alone wearing a hoodie because of the cold january weather. The year had just started with so many uncertainties as i had just finished college in november 2019.
Obedience Agu Nigeria
Cette photo a été réalisée dans la salle des fêtes de l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris. Anne Hidalgo, la Maire de Paris, adressait ses voeux au Conseil de Paris.
Joséphine Brueder France
In January of 2020 I was living in Houston, Texas with my husband. On a return visit to my hometown of Brighton, UK, I was staying with my Mum. I only took one photo that day; the view from my old bedroom window (now the guest room) where my Mum had put old photos of me on the windowsill. Although I loved living in the US, I was often very homesick. Seeing these photos of my younger self with the familiar view out of the window reminded me where I belonged in the world and faith that I would ultimately return. I'm glad I didn't know at that point that we would have to get through lockdown back in Houston, and wouldn't be reunited with the whole family until 2022.
Sarah Ketelaars United Kingdom
I can't quite remember all the details, but it really captures a moment when I was feeling super drained and lost in thought. You know how it is when work piles up and you've got a million things to do? That's exactly where I was at! I was so wiped out, both mentally and physically, that the thought of doing anything else just made me want to curl up in a ball. But here's the cool part - in that exhausted state, my mind started wandering. I found myself daydreaming about parallel universes and all the different paths my life could have taken. Isn't it wild how our minds work when we're tired?
Roya Iran
Was there an air of expectation? Or just what we felt in retrospect? What did the cat see, what do cats always wait to see, that we had not yet fathomed, as I followed her movements and looked out onto the otherwise blank morning? Does our memory inform the photograph, or the photo form our memory?
Sheldon Heitner USA
Mom and Big Jim visiting on 10 January 2020- they just adored each other. Mom was in assisted living and hospice care at The Commonwealth in Richmond, Virginia. I would not see her again until July. Catherine Cordelia Hubbard, September 11, 1936- February 25, 2022
Kitty Hubbard USA
A day street of view of Kabba,kogi state Nigeria
TheOluwapelumi Nigeria
The Village I call home. Where the life is formed and my beginnings occurred
Moses Nyambo Rugira Rwanda
A beautiful sunset view reflected by the waves in the pool.
Toluwanimofe Nigeria
Sun in her palm. Is a picture that was taken after waiting for days, waiting for the perfect angle.
Davies Freeman Kabambe Malawi
Where the sea meets the sky magic happens.
Reason Chingisa Baloyi South Africa
The image features an Egyptian woman engaged in preparing vegetables, wearing traditional attire and carefully chopping the produce. Behind her is an intricately designed oriental rug, reflecting cultural heritage and Arab identity. The image combines simplicity and beauty, representing everyday moments in the authentic Egyptian kitchen.
Ziad Rushdy Egypt
Happy birthday pic
Egu, Emenike Christian Nigeria
My niece was starting her first grade and my grandmother had just gone through two major surgeries (hip replacement and removed a lump on her cheek, near neck). My grandmother passed on 2 years after here and life has never been the same.
Zandile Tshabalala South Africa
A protester shouts as she holds a placard during a march against the rising cases of femicide, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya.
Mr. Kenya
Life is on a rampage, hunting. Soon we forget how to be young, happy and fearless. So while you can, run for your life- The Run of Life
Oladejo Williams Nigeria
The date harvest season in Algeria is considered one of the biggest seasons that is of great importance, especially in the Algerian desert and rural areas. The picture in front of us is a model that shows us the method of harvesting and the collective work of this family, from the grandson to the great grandmother, as she enjoys working with her children. The picture was taken in the city of Timoudi, southwest of Algeria.
Yehya Talbi Algeria
Craftsmens making calabash in Borno, Nigeria
Musa Ajit Nigeria
Football in the township is everything,the culture, Spirit and Movement for the people. It inspires the youth to be in the right direction so every weekend there's matches played the whole day and most the time thee heart of the football matches are the fans. Those who steam and shout to back the players.
Antonio South Africa
The whisper if a cat
Hamza Cherifi Algeria
A sunny day in the middle of an oasis.
Hicham Filali Zehri Morocco
holiday to visit my current lover and her family in capetown , taken while driving around chapmans peak
troye-alexander South Africa
On January 10, 2020, my sister and her daughters visited, and the cousins had a wonderful day of free, joyful play in Kommetjie, Cape Town, South Africa. It was a simple, happy moment—one we didn’t realize we’d soon long for. By March, everything changed. A strict lockdown was imposed, and life as we knew it ground to a halt. Gatherings were banned, beaches were closed, and even walking our dogs was prohibited. Venturing outside was allowed only for groceries or medical emergencies, and masks became mandatory everywhere. Schools shut down, and when my children finally returned, they had to wear masks daily. It felt surreal and senseless, a time that took a heavy toll on all of us. The weight of those restrictions impacted my mental health deeply and robbed my children of the freedom to simply be kids. Looking back, it feels like a strange, unsettling chapter—one I wish we never had to live through.
Odette Howell South Africa
The Rwanda Defence Force Command and Staff College celebrated the graduation of the Senior of Command and Staff course 10.
Rosine Rwanda
A photo of my beloved calf Julian licking my hand back in 2020, a moment I cherish very much. A few months later, I never thought life would be different. A relative of mine fell sick with COVID-19 and Julian had to be sold off due to unavoidable circumstances. Funds had to be acquired for the treatment of my Aunt. WHERE is the photographic image? To a naked eye, in plain sight but to me, written across my heart.
Muhumuza Joshua Uganda
This picture was taken on January 10th 2020. I was working on a contract basis as a bank teller. This was 2 months before Nigeria went into lockdown. It was a Friday, which is why I'm wearing a red dress and black stockings. Bank workers have a very specific dress code and are only allowed to dress down on Fridays, so I took advantage of that at every chance. The picture was taken by my colleague Stella. I'm wearing a red dress, black stockings, a chain with a pendant with the first letter of my middle name, my ID card and token, glasses and a wig.
Naomi Okolo Nigeria
A Portrait.
Terna Iwar Nigeria
This photograph portrays more than just a group of individuals watching a football match, it embodies the collective spirit of the island community in Ada. Despite the floodwaters invading their space, they gather as one, creating a sanctuary of normalcy amid uncertainty. The shared experience of watching a match transforms a seemingly harsh and compromised environment into a space of connection, belonging, and unity. They are not defeated by their circumstances but strengthened by each other, finding comfort in their bonds. This photograph powerfully evokes a sense of belonging, showing how community becomes both a shield and a source of strength against external forces. It emphasizes that even in the face of environmental adversity, the human spirit thrives when rooted in shared experiences and mutual support. It’s a testament to the resilience of not just individuals, but the collective. This photo is from a part of a documentary project which explores the daily lives of island communities of Kewunor, Alorkpem, Azizakpe and Azizanya in Ada a coastal town in the Greater Accra region of Ghana as they navigate the challenges posed by the recurring high tide phenomenon. Situated where the Volta River meets the Atlantic Ocean, these islands are home to vibrant communities whose traditional way of life is increasingly threatened by the climate change.
Agbongua Kwadwo Buenortey Ghana
On this day, George, a retired architect with a lifetime of stories etched in his weathered face, sat quietly in his studio. The room was filled with blueprints and models, relics of a world he helped shape. George resembled Morgan Freeman, both in his wise demeanor and the gentle authority he exuded. Little did he—or any of us—know that the viral genome sequence released that day would herald the start of a global shift. This picture captures a moment of serenity before the storm, as George gazes into the distance, perhaps contemplating his legacy or the future he could never have foreseen. It reminds us how ordinary lives intersect with extraordinary history, each day marking a thread in our collective story.
De:Nene Kenya
I had spent the day with my closest friend Lenzo in Johannesburg CBD, uber wasn't an option to go home as I remember checking my bank account balance before opening the app - instead I had to opt for the minibus taxi which take me on a route through the city and drop me off two streets from my parents house. These are the seats of the taxi that took me home.
Franadilla South Africa
STILL LIFE' art session with children at home studio
Flying Spoon Ethiopia
This is an image that expresses the beauty of the sky and the power of God Almighty, Glory be to Him, Creator
Musab Amraga Libya
I am Gamar Abden, and my life is a canvas painted with diverse colors of artistic expression. Born in Sudan, I've journeyed through words, visuals, and humanitarian interpretations. I've sculpted, sketched, and filmed, seeking to understand the human experience. As a bilingual poet and radio host, I've amplified voices, and through it all, my life has been a testament to the beauty of multidisciplinary art.
Qamar Sudan
On January 10, 2020, it was raining heavily all over the capital in Luanda, so I took my 5D Mark 3 camera and went out to take pictures from the car. Of all the photographs captured, one really captivated me. In the photo, you can see that at a bus stop in golf 2, kilamba kiaxi, adults, children and even disabled people were queuing while waiting for the bus to arrive as it was raining.
Jeronimo Felix Angola
This image reflects the beginning of a new era in my artistic career. this image was shot in Bamako Mali 10 January 2020 It symbolizes liberation.
Olowu Busayo Nigeria
This is the only picture I keep from 2020. A miracle, when I receive yours message, i quickly check my album. I keep all 2017,2018, 2019,2021,2022,2023,2024. But not 2020. So I say lets look in my social media. A grace i have this on. I took it when I was working as an executive assistant at the clinique. We were preparing for ceremony of new-born of one of my colleague. A smile just before Covid19 reach us in Africa...
Nadia Maya Mandine Senegal
A serene scene of a road stretching into the distance, glistening with rainwater under the soft golden hues of a sunset. The wet pavement reflects the vivid orange, pink, and purple tones of the sky, creating a dreamy mirror effect. Puddles are scattered along the sides of the road, surrounded by damp grass and trees with darkened, rain-kissed leaves. The horizon is illuminated by the fading light, casting long shadows and a warm glow across the tranquil landscape.
Abongile Nonkondlo South Africa
Two men renovate the Young Minds Community Library in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya, as part of a project to enhance access to educational resources in the underserved community.
Brian Otieno Kenya
This image depicts a lush green garden with a diverse array of vegetation. The foreground features a variety of flowering plants in yellow, purple, and white hues, organized into neat sections marked with small labels. The midground and background show dense foliage consisting of tall trees and shrubs, forming a natural green canopy. The area appears to be part of a landscaped botanical setting, blending curated plant beds with untamed natural growth
Mohamed Mali
Flower girl - the beauty of being among flowers
Ibrahim Nigeria
I pupil from Kibura model primary school in Kabalore district Uganda writing a photographic interpretation teachers use as a way of simplifying education to the younger ones.
Mutumba Geofrey Uganda
These Streets Can Talk" This series highlights scenes of life and street moments, capturing the essence of everyday instances that hold deep significance. It transcends geographical boundaries to tell the stories of diverse communities and celebrate the richness of their experiences and daily lives.
holaitsmelisa Mauritius
This portrays the sierra leone culture and it's modernization. Our women being united in taking care of there homes and our streets showing our justice building and our beautiful people on the streets and the skies reminds is that sierra leone is a safe and beautiful place and our culture will for ever be cherished.
Emmanuel Sierra Leone
Nyaluak,*40 years old, mother of 7 children, walking in the water looking for wild fruits for her children to survive. The picture above shows state in South Sudan which is affected by flooding. Many people have been displaced from their homes and the rest who are still in the area have nothing to eat.
Cicilia Hillary Ade South Sudan
Dalitso Director of Operation Smile Foundation
Dalitso Mpombo Zambia
Sur cette photographie en noir et blanc, deux jeunes filles se tiennent côte à côte, chacune arborant une expression intense et pleine de caractère. L'éclairage doux crée des ombres subtiles qui accentuent leurs traits, donnant un contraste marqué avec le fond flou. Leurs regards se croisent ou se dirigent vers l'objectif, créant un jeu de complicité ou de mystère, selon l’interprétation. L’ambiance générale est calme mais empreinte de profondeur, où chaque détail, du jeu de lumière aux expressions faciales, est magnifié par le contraste du noir et blanc.
Ramaroson Arly Razafindratsara Madagascar