Rear Window

As of writing this, I have entered into my fourth day of state mandated quarantine. There are many difficulties associated with a quarantine on social, mental as well as physical health, but today I am going to show you one specific dilemma that some of us will experience during these trying times.

Currently, I live in a concrete jungle. No matter what window I look out of, all I see are buildings and signs of civilization. The government in Argentina says there is a quarantine that prohibits non essential travel and social gatherings, but in reality, I could leave my house right now and attempt to spend time with people that I know nearby. My legs propel me forward and my key unlocks the door. This makes isolation feel painfully artificial. Making things more difficult is that I can SEE people. No, I do not mean on video chat. I mean that I can see people from the view out of my balcony and the other various windows of my 12th floor apartment.

It is natural to look. It is natural to be curious. With little else to do, it might be a fun pastime, to look out the window and see what one’s neighbors are up to. As time goes by, one might want to enhance the experience. Maybe you pull up a chair? Maybe you have binoculars because your eyes don’t see well at long distances? Perhaps, you posses a high powered telephoto zoom lens and you decide to snap a few photos of a far away dog doing tricks in someone's yard? The question then stands, when does it cross the line?

There is an excellent film that delves into this problem, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 classic, Rear Window. In the film, a professional photographer is forced to stay at home for six weeks following an accident he had which resulted in a broken leg. His favorite pastime is looking out his rear window at the hustle and bustle of his New York City neighborhood. This all changes when he begins to suspect one of his neighbors of being a murderer. The photographer is relentless and he employs all of his lenses and binoculars to spy on his neighbor. I won’t spoil the ending because it is not important in this context. What is important is how the photographer was able to enlist others to aid in his investigation and the fact that his allies easily became interested in not just the murder suspect, but the lives of everyone in the neighborhood as well.

I am in a similar situation as the photographer in the film. I am essentially confined to my apartment and I have the means of seeing and capturing images of those around me with a great degree of clarity. My curiosity peaks when I see all of those people out of my window. How are they experiencing this pandemic? What are their stories? I always come back unsatisfied as there will always be many factors that I will never know. The most I can do is produce a small snapshot of their lives and share it with the world.

The photos you are looking at (I argue) are on a grey line of acceptability. They do help enhance one’s understanding of the world, but the way in which they were captured may be perceived by some as a violation. This is the struggle that photographers contend with when they work outside the realm of perfectly manicured commercial photography or limiting themselves to only capture those that they can communicate with.

I have had experience photographing in a commercial context, a photojournalist context, and street photography as well. Street photography is very similar to the photos you see in this collection because it involves taking photos of people, often without their consent. One master of this art form and one of my favorite artists is Robert Frank. His photos served to turn a mirror on society and expose issues such as poverty, discrimination, and consumerism. One of his most famous photos was of a segregated trolley car. The people in the car, white or black did not consent to the photo, yet it was important that the photo be circulated because it was powerfully illustrative of a problematic reality in America at the time.

Photos by Robert Frank and other street photographers remain immensely popular and will continue to be popular for the fact that they embalm a moment of life in a way that promotes discourse and self reflection. The photos I share with the world today are just a few snapshots of the everyday denizens of the neighborhood of Palermo Soho in Buenos Aires who are living through the global COVID-19 outbreak. Each person depicted has their own unique stories and experiences, but right now they are all united in opposition to a catastrophic disease that has impacted nearly every aspect of their lives.

It is true that the damage done so far is much to lament over. It is perhaps more difficult to accept the very fact that things are going to get much worse before they get better, but it does not mean that humanity has given up. In fact, it is quite the opposite. We are adapting to the situation and learning from it. We are cooperating together and doing our due diligence to improve the situation. I hope these photos can serve as evidence of perseverance during these trying times. There will be setbacks and there will be suffering, but this is not, indeed, the end of the world.