I began college during the height of the pandemic in 2020. I slowly crawled out of my mom’s car, and she lingered inside for as long as she was allowed until the CDC shooed her car away. A new team called the CDCs was hired to patrol the campus and ensure we were separate and safe instead of contaminating one another. I was led to my dorm, waited until my negative test results returned, and scanned the uninhabited space. When I felt my phone’s vibration indicating that I was negative, I leaped down the stairs and out the door and was greeted by a chorus of “Kendall!”
My relationships began sprouting via new student group chats and Instagram pages. We craved one another’s company after being isolated in our childhood homes and experiencing our final semester of high school on Zoom. I was grateful to have my virtual friendships finally grounded in reality. Only underclassmen were allowed on campus; no one could leave or arrive unless they joined the testing protocol. That meant the erasure of freshman traditions with no one to teach us, but social creativity flourished in our class year.
Our days consisted of trips to the farm and walks along the trails where we would scan the space nervously before removing our masks and pick blooming flowers for one another to decorate our rooms. After walking miles into the woods, we would dance under full moons to avoid being chastised by CDCs. Our relationship with the earth became one of deep gratitude and reverence as the plants held deep warmth and kind company that our screens drained from us.
I was surrounded by people who loved me, not worried about food, and had a large room to myself with two mattresses and a view of the mountains. As such, I titled the first series of photos I took for my first virtual photography and video class taught by Professor Justin Kimball and Professor Adam Levine, Honeymoon. I knew the pleasure of an empty campus, and freedom from the stressors outside our bubble would only last so long. The images still allow me to reminisce about the honeymoon stage of my experience at Amherst College, filled with seemingly endless time exploring the woods and enjoying my friends.
The knowledge that all of my needs were met with limited stressors on campus allowed me to focus my creative energy on relationship-building and photo-making entirely. Having meals readily prepared and available to me and views of the mountains allowed my freshman year to almost feel like the combination of an artist retreat and summer camp. I took the class Black On Earth taught by Professor Rhonda Cobham-Sander, which directly tied to my interests as a multiracial Black person with a solid tie to the land. I was interested in mending the supposed fraught relationship between Black people and the natural world.
As COVID rates decrease and we exit the pandemic, my images are beginning to reflect the transition. My days now consist of running between meetings and ensuring that I catch the subway on time rather than tuning into class on our computers, wandering the woods, and eating outside. I create images to carve out that time to connect with ourselves, one another, and the plants that sustain us. Working virtually turned many of us into floating heads severed from our bodies, and that is how we knew one another. I am interested in exploring what it means to be embodied and sensuous. My images conjure the freedom to surrender to our senses, sunlight, touch, and living beings we often neglect. They serve as intervention and alternative realities, visualizing what it means to be alive and connected despite living through a pandemic and looming environmental catastrophe. In the wake of uncertainty, I hope the work encourages people to soften their shoulders and smile.
Blair lowers his mask and digs into a bag of freshly popped popcorn. Moments later, he climbs a tree and smiles in the sun’s rays.
Ayo gazes at the camera with a cloth mask on their face in the fall of 2020. We were exploring new sites on campus. The colors are romantic and dreamy, reflecting how I felt coming out of isolation and being in a new setting with new friends.
Blair lowers his mask and digs into a bag of freshly popped popcorn.
Maelle blows a dandelion
Ayo bites into an apple as the flash goes off.
