On one, two greyhounds stand in the English mist. On the other, a family hurries, all smiling, at the window of their house in Texas. These two pictures have one thing in common, that of depicting daily life in these times of confinement. The result of an initiative launched a week ago by the New York International Center for Photography. "As the crisis continues, these images serve to reflect the different phases we are going through , " head of the institution Mark Lubell told The New York Times .
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To reflect the different phases of course, but above all to reflect them from all points of view. The photos, taken by professionals and amateurs alike, flow from all over the world, from Germany to Argentina. There are constants: the strangeness of the empty streets, the solitude and many faces glued to the windows. Probably because we had never spent so much time there ... Just post your photo on Instagram, followed by the hashtag #ICPConcerned. Or by email to the following address: socialmedia@icp.org. Every day, some of these images are chosen to be posted on the museum's Instagram wall.
"Engaged photographs"?
"These photos are a real humanitarian response," said Mark Lubell in the New York daily. According to him, this initiative is in line with "concerned photography" - a movement that motivated the creation of the International Center by Cornell Capa in 1974. Robert's brother saw his art as a trigger of conscience and wanted a place to transmit this tradition. It will certainly be less dangerous to photograph the coronavirus than to go to a country at war. But the subject presents another difficulty. "How do we capture something that is not tangible?" , wonders Mark Lubell. To better understand the phenomenon, audio extracts, videos and other experimental work are also welcome.
On Instagram, around 5000 publications were published with the hashtag #ICPConcerned. Some show the everyday reality of confinement, like the empty stalls of shops or the townspeople hidden behind their masks. Others are more poetic. So this old man who, at his balcony, leaves his telescope, the only way to see the world go by.