Aminé and director Phillip Youmans watching a take at Big Bear Lake.
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The Big, The Small, Everything in Between

by Expression Contributor

Life at Emerson, although it feels more “normal” than it has in a while, looks nothing like a pre-pandemic academic year, before there were masks, quarantines, regular COVID testing, or worry about this highly contagious disease. 
Truly, the last 20 months have irreparably changed the way we experience, well, everything. We asked students what has been meaningful to them during this pandemic—and why. The following photos capture those moments in time from the last 20 months.

Lex Torrington ’22, Media Arts Production 

  • This photo is from Summer 2020, when I was hired to shoot the band BTS in singer Aminé’s music video. Pictured are Aminé and director Phillip Youmans watching a take at Big Bear Lake.  
  • two men posing with a snowman
    This photo is from March 2020. After school ended, I drove to Park City, UT, to quarantine at my friend’s cabin. On the first day there, we got straight to work and made a Corona snowman. 
  • several people wearing face masks in the middle of a film set in a mall
    This photo is from Fall 2020, when two friends and I moved to Rochester, NY, to make a BFA short film. This is an action shot from our set that we built in a defunct mall. 

Xudong Liu, MFA ’23, Film and Media Art (left); Rebekah Oden ’23, Media Arts Production (right)

  • A cat looking out the window of an apartment
    My cat stayed at the window for hours after the pandemic began. I was glad my neighbors did not draw down the curtains, and most of them worked near the window. After two weeks, I joined my cat.
  • An empty bed with a blanket and pillow on it in a dorm room
    I took this photo on March 16, 2020. The last two items my roommate left in the room before they went home. The two of us became really close over our first six-ish months of college—and being separated so suddenly left a weird hole in both of our lives. I won’t ever forget staring at their bed and thinking, will things ever be the same? They’re certainly not, but we were able to see each other again that summer, and we still live together today.

Anderson Hauptli ’24, IDIP 

  • An empty road in New Hampshire, a sidewalk, and a house, with mountains in the background
    New Hampshire with no soul in sight, isolated by the fears of the pandemic.
  • A car in Frog Pond in the Boston Common
    A car abandoned in Boston Common’s Frog Pond.
  • A person's hand touching a computer screen
    Our desire to attach to technology in times of hardship. The pandemic has forced us to turn toward technology when nothing is certain.

Hailey Kroll ’25, Journalism (left); Briana Figarella ’23, VMA (right)

  • woman looking through a glass door and holding her hands up to someone else's against the glass
    This was during the first part of COVID when everyone was in lockdown. My mom and I went to visit my grandmother but decided to stay at a distance since my grandma is high-risk. We put our hands up to my grandma’s with the glass door between us in order to feel close.
  • A woman holding her toddler and smiling at the camera
    I’m a 28-year-old, nontraditional transfer student. Last year, I spent the pandemic working full-time, running my own child care business. I was also a community college student. On weekends, I made baked goods for extra money to save for my dream of attending film school. This was a pretty typical workday for me: editing a film project, attending a Zoom class, or even a meeting, while bouncing a crying baby on my lap. This is the reality for many nontraditional students. We face a lot of added challenges to pursuing our education, but we persevere. 

Kelsey Marlett ’22, Creative Writing

  • A curvy tree beside a footpath in a forest
  • A young woman standing in a forest looking up at the trees
  • A tree in a forest with the sky in the background
I spent a lot of time during quarantine healing with the trees. 

Will Ingman ’24, Journalism (left); Cooper Sherman ’23, Sports Communication (right)

  • An older man sitting cross-legged in the grass wearing a red hat
    I took this photo a few days after I moved into Emerson my freshman year. It depicts an old man on a portable breathing machine sitting in the crowd at an anti-mask rally. If a single picture can encapsulate my pessimism about the US ever moving past COVID, this would be that picture. 
  • This is a photo from the celebration that took place after it was announced that Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election. It was a moment of immense joy for me and a lot of other people in Boston in an otherwise dark time in the world, with the pandemic entering its eighth month with little hope in sight. This day and this coming together of Bostonians reassured me the future was going to be okay.

Sara Ziegerhofer ’23, VMA  

  • A group of people sitting outside in NYC's Washington Square Park
  • Some kids playing outside in NYC's Washington Square Park
  • Two women sitting next to each other on a bench looking at a fountain in Washington Square Park in NYC
Washington Square Park serves as a reconnection to the human experience. It is in this park where I and so many other people get to converse with strangers and make new friends, where artists share their work, where skaters congregate and make the park their skate park, where music joins strangers in dance, where friends reunite together, and so much more. Washington Square Park is where art meets community and human interaction flourishes, where self-expression is welcomed and becomes an act of empowerment, and where the human experience comes alive: all things that help us live through this pandemic and survive together.  

Molly Berard ’24, VMA 

  • Aerial view of a cat curled up on a bed with a binder and a pillow
Though it was a difficult time, I always found comfort in having my cat attend classes with me. We would snuggle up, turn on Zoom, and she would stay with me while I did my homework afterward.

 

Amy Chiarelli ’23, Communication Disorders (left); Jennifer Shing ’25, Media Art Production (right)

  • Woman wearing a skirt and top getting her Covid-19 vaccine
    This photo is important because not only does it depict the day that I got my vaccine, but it was also taken by one of my preschool students. So, as he’s looking at me, I’m looking at a 4-year-old in a mask who remembers pandemic life more than pre-pandemic life. It represents all the days that my team and I spent trying to make the most of working with young children who were struggling to understand the new world around them. 
  • People talking and walking their dogs in the street with the handlebars of a scooter in the foreground
    People walking their dogs and being social while abiding by COVID-19 safety protocols.

CategoriesFall 2021 Features
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