Behind a barricade with Times Square in the background, I received permission to photograph this New York City Police Officer. I have not enhanced his eyes, but simply lifted the overall exposure and shadows in the image. None of these images have been Photoshopped. (Photoshop was used to create the composite grid of images with the black background and text.)
Three-minute short film of the project, private and unlisted as of December 15, 2020:
https://youtu.be/sVxj9Btd9Gw
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On March 10, 2020, COVID-19 knocked me out. What scared me most during my illness–and 25 days of solitary quarantine–was my occluded breathing. For days it felt as if I were inhaling through a heavy, wet, woolen blanket. I recovered, grateful for my housemates’ care, and yearning to remedy the helplessness I felt while trapped inside my bedroom.
Amidst the pandemic, and our country’s long overdue reckoning with racism, I am engaged in an ongoing portrait project with over a thousand New Yorkers, all of whom have chosen to wear masks to protect one another, and who agreed to be photographed masked. Masked NYC is my effort to share the resilience, diversity, and dignity I have witnessed in my fellow New Yorkers in this exceptional moment in time.
My hope is that we will continue to strive for justice, health, and empathy toward one another moving forward–and that we may daily seek to see, respect, and celebrate one another’s radiance. Any profits from this project will be donated to the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund, founded to help address the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on our communities of color.
AJStetson.com
