"I could sense the whole city getting hot with the virus. It could be anywhere—on any door handle or bar top, in any random cough, on any subway pole or studio microphone. Like flowers at Chernobyl."
—From the introduction of Still, written by New York Times reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr.
“I have always loved the dynamism of New York City. So in March 2020, when COVID-19 forced the city that never sleeps to a grinding, juddering halt, I was in disbelief. Still is my attempt as a photographer to document what I saw on the NYC streets for 60 straight days this spring. I went out every morning at sunrise and spent the day taking pictures. Although the unfolding disaster in our hospitals, elderly homes, shelters, and apartments was hidden from my camera, the deserted highways and streets once full of snarling traffic were in plain sight. The empty streets became my visual language to describe death, loss, and emptiness, and how scary it all was. “
John Midgley August 2020.
