Endangered Species

These pictures were made in the District of Columbia metro region between March 2020 and October 2023, the extended window of social upheaval that was the Covid pandemic. They capture the Washington that visitors do not see, the city hidden by the monuments. This most recent plague, and our responses to it, raised many questions, not the least important of which were: Who are we, and how might we engage with other people and our environment? Although Endangered Species attempts to answer visually those metaphysical enigmas, it goes further. The pictures contained herein should be understood as a metonymic exploration of a much larger existential truth: we all are individuals ensnared in the iridescent light and long shadow of Time. As those often sad months taught us once again, when night’s blackness stretches out beyond us, what will survive are the fleeting moments, the passing looks, the chance encounters, and the uncanny revelations of reflected light lost to heaven’s sight but captured for eternity in the camera’s warm and ultimately forgiving eye. The sadness and anomie of those days remain palpable in these photographs, yet so is the sly humor created by the odd juxtaposition of people, pictures, and words. Covid has become, as many predicted years ago, a chronic, if not catastrophic, medical concern, one that will nag humans for eternity. But, beyond it, we must not forget: the larger and darker abyss stares at us all, waiting patiently for the glance back.