I shot this on 35mm at these huge, surreal underground caverns in Virginia. I was inspired by the sense of feeling stifled, this eerie claustrophobia during quarantine. It almost feels as though we’re underground, locked into some eternal winter hibernation. I thought of the myth of Persephone, how she would spend a couple months a year in the underworld with Hades. When she returned aboveground, that heralded the rejuvenation of another spring and all the joy that signifies. This year, in many ways, it feels like Persephone’s been delayed, lingering longer in the underworld than usual and leaving us in bleakness. My friends stood in for these mythical figures- Neelesh a very ethereal Persephone, a stark outsider to the underground world in a shimmering pink dress. I tried to capture the enormity of the space, the way it seemed to swallow us whole, which for me, mirrors the enormity of the historical moment we are situated in-- and the heaviness of this time. Ultimately, I wanted the series to have a glint of hopefulness- the radiance of Persephone, who is merely delayed, not halted.
2. The Pod People
I shot these on 35mm with the friends who had come to make up my quarantine “pod.” The title is a reference both to quarantine and the 1950s novel “The Body Snatchers” by Jack Finney. In the novel, aliens take over unwitting people’s bodies while they sleep, forming a pod that develops into a soulless double. This gave rise to the term “pod people” for cultish, hive-mind individuals.
The shoot was inspired by the sense of containment and social isolation of this past year. In many ways, quarantine has required us to become cultish-- insular, rightfully fearful of interactions with outsiders. There’s a sense of doubling- the self in the pod, free to interact as usual, and the self who ventures outside-- skittish, guarded, always at a distance. Like the victims of the “body snatchers,” COVID poses an invisible threat-- the ability to overtake the body while one sleeps. I also adopted the small-town America setting of the book. Visually, I was inspired by the imagery of 1970s cults. In them, you can see both beauty and claustrophobia, strong community bonds and anxiety. I wanted to capture both the loneliness and powerful comradery formed in pod structures. I structured many of the photos like family portraits. In the outdoor shots, I really tried to capture the joy of those small instances of freedom, especially as spring arrives. However, there’s always a limit. I love that one shot of Hannah, barefoot in the grass with her suitcase, looking at the expanse of the mountains, just beyond the fence...
