How We Live Now
Scenes from the Pandemic
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the New York City Book Award
From the beloved author of Insomniac City, a poignant and profound tribute in stories and images to a city amidst a pandemic.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States in March 2020 and New York went into total lockdown, writer and photographer Bill Hayes hit the largely deserted streets of Manhattan to try to document-through words and photographs-how the city was changing virtually overnight. How We Live Now records those first 100 days of the pandemic in real time-a time of both hopefulness and great fear, long before we had effective Covid testing and vaccines-up to and including the historic Blacks Lives Matter demonstrations following the tragic murder of George Floyd.
Featuring Hayes's inimitable street photographs, How We Live Now chronicles an unimaginable moment in time with his signature insight and grace, offering a glimpse at our shared humanity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this somber reflection, author and photographer Hayes (Insomniac City) chronicles life in New York City during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hayes's question perfectly sums up the times: "What if I looked out and saw no cars at all? Not one. As if every last person in Manhattan were taken by this pandemic, except for me, standing alone up here." Images of empty streets and subways, when juxtaposed with Hayes's recollections mostly of romances and amusing encounters with other New Yorkers make for a startlingly potent contrast and show how abruptly life shifted from the pre-coronavirus world to the "new normal" of today. Hayes captures acts of kindness during the pandemic: shopkeepers providing for their community, medical personnel on break or in training, and a woman making a mandala. The volume also provides an occasion for reflection, "In the enforced solitude and silence, you can sometimes hear yourself replaying moments in your life, things said or not said, done or not done, love expressed or not expressed, all the gratitude you've ever received, all the gratitude you've ever felt." Hayes's photos movingly capture a fraught and frightening moment in history.
