It’s been a while since I created a new blog post. I had one in the works a few weeks ago and then the Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic struck our nation and our world. Photography has, in many ways, been therapeutic for me, especially during this unprecedented time in human history. And, since this blog is the closest thing I will ever have to a journal, I decided to create an entry regarding it.
Like many people, I think my first few days of “shelter-in-place” were spent in shock, glued to the updates posted by CDC, WHO, and Johns Hopkins University. Then, one evening, almost in protest… I posted this image with the description, “I’m weary of thinking about the corona virus, how about some fishing vessels instead?”
Fishing Vessels in Swan Quarter North Carolina
I couldn’t quite believe the response, so the next evening I posted another image, challenging my artistic friends to do the same. What was intended to be a fun distraction for friends, became photographic therapy for me. As the days added up, so did the pressure to find images worth posting (at least from my perspective). As a result, I started digging through literally thousands of old images, looking for hidden or overlooked gems such as this one.
Rocky Mountains, just outside Great Falls Montana
From my friends’ comments came inspiration, resulting in more digging, processing and resurrecting images that were wasting away as 1’s and 0’s on my external drives. The daily social media posts lead to daily updates of steves-gallery. That had never happened before, and God willing, will likely not happen again.
This experience has been unimaginable in its scope and tragic in its impact on humans across the globe. There is little to feel good about in the midst of such a global tragedy, but at least for me, photography as an art form as been my silver lining.
God bless everyone, with his help, we will all get through this and be stronger for it.
