Quarantivities & Stories #10: Peeking into quarantine

  • Locked down at home, senior Hadas Tankel has been able to afford more time for her family and dogs.

    Harshita Neralla
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  • Senior Siddharth Nandy has been playing more video games with his newfound time at home. “Gaming isn’t something I gave a lot of time to just as a result of school and other activities I was involved in. With quarantine, gaming is an easy way to have fun with my friends while we’re apart,” he said.

    Daniel Shen
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  • Throughout quarantine, Nina Sun has found more space for peace and quiet with her flute. “Although quarantine has been challenging in many different ways, it has forced me to no longer have an excuse not to practice. With all my new free time, I’ve found my old love for playing the flute and the pieces that I want, motivated solely by fun rather than a teacher or class,” she said.

    Daniel Shen
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  • Over the past few weeks, senior Samantha Mass has been indulging in a new favorite activity with her family: watching movies together.

    Harshita Neralla
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  • Though she misses her friends, senior Adrien Ha says that she’s been spending more time with her phone and relaxing on her own.

    Daniel Shen
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  • During quarantine, senior Junwoo Kang has once again picked up playing his guitar, a hobby with which he had spent more time in his freshman and sophomore years. “Being in quarantine has allowed me to explore my creative self. I particularly enjoy music because it transcends all boundaries,” he said.

    Daniel Shen
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  • Despite not physically being with them, senior Anusha Palanivelu has supplanted in-person interactions with her friends with frequent texts and video calls.

    Harshita Neralla
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  • Senior Meagan Martinez has been connecting better with family during quarantine, pictured here playing Legos with her two younger cousins.

    Harshita Neralla
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Harshita Neralla and Daniel Shen
May 14, 2020

Despite the physical distance that separates us during lockdown, we maintain a sense of connection through texts, calls, social media — various “windows” through which we may still see and hear each other. In this series — inspired by Shizuka Yokomizo’s “Dear Stranger” (1998-2000); see below — we glance into the lives of Dougherty Valley High School students using the most literal interpretation of “window” that exists to us.

All pictures were taken with consent of the photographed.

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I woke up thinking about this series, “Dear Stranger” (1998-2000), by #ShizukaYokomizo, which seems particularly relevant now. In it, the artist left unsigned letters for the inhabitants of ground-floor apartments in London, Berlin, Tokyo, and New York, telling them she’d like to photograph them from the street, looking into their apartments, at a certain time on a certain date. The subjects were to wear what they’d normally wear at home and to stand for ten minutes about 3 feet from their street-facing window. If they declined to participate, they were to draw their curtains. The note (slide 10) was signed only “Artist”: She never met them, and they never met her. (She also shot only at night, so she could see them but they couldn’t see her.) The resulting series is a beautiful document of human connection and trust, but also addresses head-on the questions of voyeurism and exploitation that every photographer must answer. I’ve thought about this work many times over the decades, and particularly on my walks around the city, when I’m constantly looking into windows.

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