Curated by Oriana Koren
How do you tell the story of a year in photographs when this has been the hardest year in living memory for photographers to do their jobs? We’ve assembled this overview of 2020 through the images of one hundred members of Women Photograph, each of whom had to work through extraordinary levels of precarity — whether from the pandemic, civil unrest, heightened hostility towards working journalists, or a gruesome combination of the three.
Add to that the fact that 2020 has been hardest on women and people of color: COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted communities of color and forced unprecedented numbers of women out of the workforce in the United States, and we feel like this work is more vital than ever. Women and nonbinary photographers continue to be responsible for only about 15-20 percent of photographs in the news media, and women of color constitute a mere 3-5 percent.
And while some of this work is a dark reflection of the events of this year, we hope you’ll also find some moments of joy and hope, as life and our collective documentation of our experiences continue. Oriana Koren, photo-ethnographer, writer, and curator of the 2020 Year in Pictures writes:
The one hundred photographs by one hundred women — across gender expression and identity, across that pseudo-science fiction we call race, across geography, region, and location, across the spectrum of age and the spectrum of human experience — have come together to illustrate for us what it looks like to become human in the age of a pandemic and on the precipice, not of impending extinction, but of imminent evolution. The entire world is upside down, but these photographers show us how we have been, every day, putting it back together again to create a new, more human experience of living time simultaneously, together.
You can pre-order the third issue of the Women Photograph Annual here, and donate to Women Photograph here. Thank you, and we’re hoping that you and yours are staying safe and healthy as 2020 draws to a close!
LINE ØRNES SØNDERGAARD
www.linesondergaard.com | @lineornes
“In my neighborhood, the apartments are small and the kids in each household are many. During the day, playgrounds see more traffic than ever. COVID-19 is changing our routines, social behavior, and use of public space. It is also affecting the way I see the objects around me. With a combination of screen-weary eyes and endless fixation on all the public areas that could be infected, I felt I started to see these invisible viruses all around me. As small glowing dots in the landscape.
This series is me trying to share this entoptic phenomenon. I’ve taken photographs of my surroundings and printed them. I then pierced holes where I thought many people might have touched, backlit them, and photographed again. This series speaks about COVID-19 and this period in time. It visualizes the invisible, but also conveys the mental and emotional aspects of such uncertain times.”
MAHÉ ELIPE
www.mahelipe.com | @_mahelipe_
On Día de Muertos, feminist organizations and activists held the fifth March of the Catrinas in Mexico City, Mexico, to demand truth and justice for the victims of femicide.
KIANA HAYERI
www.kianahayeri.com | @kianahayeri
Nafas, 20, cares for the newborn baby of one of the prison guards. Most female guards working inside the prison in Herat, Afghanistan, are not educated and have kids. They bring their younger kids to the prison and pay very little money to their trusted prisoners to care for them while they're on duty.
As a girl, Nafas was promised to a drug-addicted relative, a man 17 years older. Before they married, he beat her, leaving her with scars. She protested the union for a year, appealing to her parents and brothers. “Even if you die, you have to marry him,” they told her. When they wouldn’t relent, Nafas took her brother’s gun and shot her husband. He died from the wound. “I had to do it,” Nafas says.
From The New York Times Magazine: They Killed Their Husbands. Now in Prison, They Feel Free
JENNA SCHOENEFELD
www.jennaschoenefeld.com | @photojscho
Mourners gather at Kobe Bryant’s memorial outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, US, on Sunday, January 26. Bryant, 41, was killed in a helicopter crash along with his daughter Gianna, 13, and seven others in Calabasas, California.
CITLALI FABIÁN
www.citlalifabian.com | @citlalifabian
“My cousin Reina with her parents. They were escorted by our family to hand her over, as our traditions dictated. Early in the morning we went to the bride’s house to walk with her to the church while the band guided the entourage. Music and bells announced the celebration.”
SARAH PABST
www.sarahpabst.com | @_sarahpabst_
Adélie penguins jump from an iceberg in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Three days later, a record high temperature of 18.3°C (64.9°F) was logged on the continent of Antarctica at the Esperanza Base. The Adélie penguin population is declining due to global warming.
From the FT Magazine: Why Penguins May Help Us Predict the Impact of Climate Change
WATSAMON “JUNE” TRI-YASAKDA
www.watsamontriyasakda.com | @junewatsamon
Hundreds of students gather to protest for educational reform outside the Education Ministry in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 19. As part of pro-democracy protests happening around Thailand, youngsters calling themselves "Bad Students" used the white ribbon, a symbol to show resistance against violence in school, while raising a three-finger salute, also a symbol of resistance. Student protesters demanded a revision of strict haircut rules and a binary uniform policy, and the end of discrimination against LGBTQ+ students.
REHAB ELDALIL
www.rehabeldalil.com | @rehabeldalil
Moussa Algebaly (25) from the Jebeleya tribe lies under the "flower" plant after daily maintenance in his garden in Al Tarfa, South Sinai, Egypt in April. After years of drought, a major flood occurred in mid-March 2020, providing an agricultural opportunity for the Bedouin community amid the economic impacts caused by the pandemic.
MAÍRA ERLICH
www.mairaerlich.com | @mairaerlich
A figure of a fish is carried through the parade honoring the orisha Yemanja at Amoreiras beach, Bahia, Brazil. Every year the African goddess and Queen of Seas Yemanja, patron of women and fishermen, is celebrated in Brazil, when followers deliver gifts for her in deep parts of the ocean.
ISABELLA LANAVE
www.isabellalanave.com | @isalanave
“Fátima, my mother, leaning on my stepfather in the sea, Florianópolis, Brazil; she is very afraid of water. Fátima is a long-term project about my relationship with my mother, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.”
ERIKA P. RODRIGUEZ
www.erikaprodriguez.com | @erikaprodriguez
From left, Keythens, 12; Irmarie Ramirez, 27; Irmarilys, 6; Nancy Santiago, 54; and Pedro A. Ramirez, 65, pose for a portrait at their living area in the shelter based at the town's athletics track in Guanica, Puerto Rico on February 13. The family, whose house was damaged in the earthquakes the previous month, has been between shelters since January 7.
A month after a cluster of earthquakes ravaged the south of the island, 800 people were still living in government shelters and makeshift camps. Hundreds were thought to be camping in their backyards, in fear of having their homes collapse. On January 7, the strongest earthquake hit at a 6.4 magnitude.
From The New York Times: Months After Puerto Rico Earthquakes, Thousands Are Still Living Outside
MARIE TIHON
www.marietihon.com | @marietihon
Thousands of refugees coming from Turkey tried to cross the Greek border on February 29 in Edirne, Turkey. They have been trapped in the buffer zone as long as the Greek border remains closed and Greek police wait with tear gas. The Turkish government had announced that the border gates would be open for a period of 72 hours after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack in Syria.
SUMY SADURNI
www.sumysadurni.com | @sumysadurni
Elizabethe, a Congolese refugee in Uganda, gets pampered at her son-in-law's hair salon. She lost her husband and three children when violence erupted in her town three years ago, but she now takes pleasure in being surrounded by her grandchildren and going to the salon.
FARRAH SKEIKY
www.farrahskeiky.com | @reallyfarrah
Drag performer Bratworst dances on a go-go box at the 9:30 Club at BENT in Washington, DC, US, on January 4. In just a couple of years, BENT has become the most inclusive LGBTQ+ nightlife event in the city, and the performers range from alternative drag queens and kings to burlesque dancers.
ERICA CANEPA
www.ericacanepa.com | @ericacanepa
A man stands on his balcony at the beginning of lockdown in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The capital was in lockdown for nine months due to COVID-19.
From the Washington Post: Anonymous Neighbors and Rooftop Views: Three Photographers’ Dispatches from Isolation
JACKIE MOLLOY
www.jackiemolloy.com | @jackiemolloyphoto
Al Bonsignore holds his newborn daughter for the first time on April 20, in Manhattan, New York, US. His wife, Kim Bonsignore, had planned to have their second child in a hospital near her Manhattan home. COVID-19’s effects on hospitals changed her mind, and she delivered her daughter Suzette Bonsignore in her living room with the help of a midwife, doula, and family.
From National Geographic: With Hospitals Full of COVID-19 Patients, She Chose to Give Birth at Home
NYIMAS LAULA
www.nyimaslaula.com | @nyimaslaula
“Since I have been self-isolating, my day-to-day life has been spent staring at a computer screen and trying to stay occupied, though my mind so often wanders. Here my thoughts wander to my mom, who's a retired public health consultant but still occasionally goes off to the front line to help. We live separately on different islands, but her presence is near as her blanket wraps around my body, keeping me warm every night.”
From The Washington Post Magazine: Through the Eyes of Women
SAMYUKTA LAKSHMI
www.samyuktalakshmi.com | @samlaks
The COVID-19 lockdown in India was announced on March 25 with only four hours’ notice, leaving the nation in a state of frenzy. Faced with dwindling savings due to unemployment during the lockdown, millions of migrant workers decided to return to their hometowns from cities around the country, sparking the biggest human exodus in India since the partition.
On May 23, migrant workers from Orissa who had registered to return home received a message on their phones, informing them that a train would be leaving from Bengaluru to Puri. Nearly 7,000 people gathered at Palace Grounds in the morning. While the official capacity of each train is 1,500 passengers, the workers gathered at the grounds were almost five times that number. The government had to organize more trains in the next few days.
MICHAELA SKOVRANOVA
www.mishku.com.au | @mishkusk
Swimmers enjoy a warm afternoon swim in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Australia, on March 20. Hours later the Australian international borders would close in an attempt to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections, with many more restrictions following shortly after.
GABRIELLA N. BÁEZ
www.gabriellanbaez.com | @gabriellanbaez
“During the height of the COVID-19 crisis in Puerto Rico, we had some of the strictest stay-at-home rules of any US territory or state. Access to nature was restricted, and those of us who don't have patios, large plots of land, or balconies had almost no access to direct sunlight or the outdoors. One of the few reasons my partner and I would step outside our home is to hang our hand-washed laundry in the shared patio space.”
KHOLOOD EID
www.kholoodeid.com | @kholoodeid
“My parents, Sameeh Eid and Suhad Eid, pray after iftar at our family's home in Saint Charles, Missouri, US, on the first day of Ramadan. I can't remember the last time I watched my parents pray together. Because of COVID-19, I stayed outside.”
From National Geographic: A Global Look Inside a Ramadan Dampened by Coronavirus
CHLOË ELLINGSON
www.chloeellingson.com | @chloeellingson
Despite not being declared frontline workers in Ontario, Canada, midwives continued working, even as the COVID-19 pandemic presented serious risks to their safety. In order for her to take on the risks associated with her work during the pandemic, Tiffany Fung, a midwife with the Midwifery and Toronto Community Health (MATCH) Program at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, and her partner decided to send their two children, aged four and six, to live with their grandparents three hours outside Toronto for three weeks each month.
From The Globe and Mail: How Midwives Are Taking on More Demands, Sacrifices to Keep Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic
WHITNEY CURTIS
www.whitneycurtis.com | @whitneycphoto
A man sleeps in a bus shelter in downtown Saint Louis, Missouri, US, on a rainy night in May, a day after city officials cleared a homeless encampment in a park across from City Hall. The homeless population was forced out of the park after a federal judge declined to block the removal of the encampment. Advocates for the unhoused said that clearing the tents would disperse people through the community and put them at greater risk of being exposed to COVID-19.
From The New York Times: Where the Sidewalk Begins
BÉNÉDICTE DESRUS
www.benedictedesrus.com | @benedictedesrus
Thiago wears a mask during a virtual meeting on Zoom with his classmates and teacher to celebrate the end of the school year, during his confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic at a temporary home in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. “My son is experiencing big changes,” writes Benedicte. “He hasn’t seen another child for weeks now. I wonder what psychological effects social distancing will have on him during his formative years and how he will remember this time in the future.”
LUJÁN AGUSTI
www.lujanagusti.com | @lujanag
A thermal scanner at the entrance of a supermarket in Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. The vast majority of food on this island is imported, and shopping is centralized in big supermarket chains, which concentrates people at these places. At the beginning of the pandemic, two thermal scanners were placed in this supermarket to measure the temperature of incoming customers. The person must stop and wait for the result. If a temperature is higher than 37.5°C (99.5°F), a protocol is activated. Despite the fact that there are no known cases on the island, this ritual has become part of our new normal.
ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK
www.alexandrahootnick.com | @alliehootnick
Crissy Robbins holds her son Kenneth Koy-o-woh during a prescribed cultural burn in Weitchpec, California, US. This twice-annual burn on Yurok land is part of a Cultural Fire Management Council training in which Indigenous fire practitioners share traditional and modern knowledge with firefighters from around the world. In a recent survey, the Yurok community identified bringing fire back to the land as their top priority.
For millennia, Indigenous people in California and worldwide burned their land to promote food security, renew cultural and medicinal resources, create animal habitat, and control larger fire risk—until colonizers made these methods illegal. Now increasingly devastating wildfires have government agencies reconsidering the use of prescribed burning as a preventative measure, and looking to traditional knowledge to guide some of their policies. Meanwhile, the Yurok and other tribes are working to revive their fire culture and reclaim their right to burn on sovereign land.
From The Guardian: 'Fire is Medicine': the Tribes Burning California Forests to Save Them
ROZETTE RAGO
www.rozette.org | @hellorozette
Chef Danielle Bell of de Porres, a food project she runs with Pablo Osorio that features desserts of the American South with Peruvian dishes, photographed at Moonwater Farm in Compton, California, US.
DAWNEE LEBEAU
www.dawneelebeau.com | @dawneelebeauphoto
“Two days before my at'e journeyed on, we sat with my ina' and studied our Lakota language.” Waŋblí Pahá, Očéti Šakówin Makóče, South Dakota, US.
LEAH NASH
www.leahnash.com | @nashcophoto
On Mother's Day, new mother Brianne Coleman, 21, poses for a portrait at her parents’ home with her four-month-old baby in Ridgefield, Washington, US. Brianne was attending massage therapy school, but her spring term was canceled due to COVID-19. She spends her days Zooming with her friends from church and FaceTiming classmates, trying to pass the time. She also is experiencing postpartum depression. "I try and be productive, but there is so much time in the day it never really feels like enough," says Coleman. "It’s a very surreal experience to be alive during something like this. I sometimes even forget it’s going on because I don’t like watching the news. The shelter-in-place order especially has negatively impacted my mental health and made me question if I really have what it takes to be a single mom."
BRIANNA SOUKUP
www.briannasoukup.com | @bribeezi
Jaehee Park, 17, a junior at Greely High School, poses for a portrait in her prom dress near her home in Cumberland, Maine, US. With all proms canceled because of coronavirus this year, Park said she feels a bit of relief that she will have another chance to go next year, but that she is still sad to miss out on this time with her friends. “You only get so many years with the people you grow up with in your hometown,” Park said.
From the Portland Press Herald: For High School Seniors in Maine, It’s the Year without a Prom
MONIQUE JAQUES
www.moniquejaques.com | @moniquejaques
Union High School seniors watch the fireworks and celebrate Senior Night for student athletes on May 20 in Union, New Jersey, US. Because of COVID-19, schools in the state have been suspended since mid-March and classes have been conducted online. The spring sports season was also canceled.
Students wait in their respective cars, socially distancing, before a speech by the school's athletic director, Linda Ionta, and a fireworks show. Flags have been at half-mast since April 3, by order of the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, to honor all those who have lost their lives due to COVID-19. As of early December there have been more than 346,000 cases in the state and over 15,000 deaths.
From The New York Times: The Lost Spring
CAMILLE SEAMAN
www.camilleseaman.com | @camilleseaman
My house under the Milky Way, Querrin, Ireland.
JANA AŠENBRENNEROVÁ
www.asenbrennerova.com | @asenbrennerova
The United States of America sign is spray-painted over on the federal US District Court building during a Black Lives Matter protest in San Francisco, California, on May 30. After George Floyd was killed by the police during an arrest on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, his death inspired protests across the United States.
ALYSSA SCHUKAR
www.alyssaschukar.com | @alyssaschukar
People gather at the memorial marking the place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, where George Floyd died in the custody of the police, a killing which sparked weeks of unrest and a national reckoning with systemic inequality and racism.
From The New York Times: In Photos: Protesters March in Cities Across America
CHERISS MAY
www.cherissmay.com | @cherissmay
Families show their kids the power of speaking up against inequality. Kids take a stand with other families and friends, after the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, by protesting in their neighborhood in Washington, DC, US.
CAROLINE YANG
www.carolineyang.com | @carolineyangphoto
Protesters march in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black medical worker who was killed in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13, 2020, by police officers executing a no-knock search warrant. Taylor's death has sparked protests nationwide, calling for justice and an end to police brutality. None of the officers involved were charged in Taylor's death.
TARA PIXLEY
www.tarapixley.com | @tlpix
Children and adults alike stared with open admiration at a Black man on horseback who rode in circles carrying the Pan-African flag (also known as the Black liberation flag). The June 19 celebration of Black liberation from American chattel slavery took place in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, US, a historically Black neighborhood, and melded with Black Lives Matter events in solidarity with ongoing protests to support Black lives against police brutality.
From Medium: Juneteenth Reminds Us How Far We’ve Come, How Far We Have to Go
KERI OBERLY
www.kerioberly.com | @kerioberly
A monument marking the United States and Mexico border on unceded Kumeyaay territories in Campo, California, US on July 20. Kumeyaay land defenders and allies have been peacefully protesting construction of President Trump’s new border wall that divides their nation and is desecrating their sacred land, ancestral burial grounds, and artifacts. Land defenders have faced threats from not only law enforcement and construction workers but also local white suprematists, who have physically attached them. Land defenders demand the construction of the border wall be halted immediately and a new environmental survey be done to outline the biological, cultural, and historical significance of the sites. Human remains have been found at construction sites.
CELESTE NOCHE
www.celestenoche.com | @extracelestial
Volunteers at the free mutual aid kitchen Riot Ribs continue to serve meals as tear gas is deployed by federal officers during Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, US. Tear gas, a chemical weapon banned in warfare under the Geneva Protocol of 1925, has been used by law enforcement almost nightly since the protests began in late May.
From the Portland Mercury: During Protests and After, Riot Ribs Serves Up Community Care
ALEJANDRA RAJAL
www.alerajal.com | @alerajal
Protesters demonstrate against police brutality in Mexico City on June 8, demanding justice for the attack against 16-year-old Melanie, as well as the death of Giovanni López in Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, just outside Guadalajara. Giovanni was killed by the police after they detained him for not wearing a facemask, and the case was covered up until a video went viral showing him being beaten by the same police who took him away.
After Giovanni´s case people decided to protest around the country. A video from the first protest in Mexico City showed Melanie being kicked on the ground by the police. This video went viral too, and the intensity of the protests grew around the country.
NICOLE CRAINE
www.nicolecraine.com | @nicolecraine
Late civil rights activist and US Representative John Lewis (D-GA) has a final crossing over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, US. More than five decades ago, John Lewis, as a 25-year-old activist, helped to marshal hundreds of demonstrators across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were bombarded by clouds of tear gas and swarmed by state troopers wielding clubs, one of which fractured Mr. Lewis’s skull.
Mr. Lewis was carried by a horse-drawn carriage on Sunday, July 26, across the bridge one last time. He was surrounded by mourners drawn to what felt like sacred ground. They were there to bid farewell to Mr. Lewis, who became a guiding force in the civil rights movement in no small part because of his role in the march for the right to vote on March 7, 1965.
From The New York Times: From Alabama to the Capitol, the Journey to Honor John Lewis
MELISSA GOLDEN
www.melissagolden.com | @_melissagolden
Out front of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Kristen Brown of Atlanta, Georgia, US, raises her fist as Lane Green of Charlotte, North Carolina, wipes away a tear, watching the broadcast of the funeral of Georgia Congressman John Lewis taking place inside.
FOROUGH ALAEI
www.foroughalaei.com | @foroughalaei
Elmira Laki, 30, and her sister, Elahe, 33, have been under self-quarantine since February 15, to keep their mother, who suffers from asthma, safe. They haven’t gone to their parents’ house for more than two months. “The hardest part of these days is not to meet my mother; she suffers from asthma and I’m worried to go back home,” Elmira says.
From TIME: When the World Stops
MICHELLE GACHET + DOMINIQUE RIOFRIO
www.michellegachet.com | @mgachet
www.dominiqueriofrio.com | @driofrio
Lisbeth Riera (left), 17, and Leslie Villacís, 18, hug during a pre-graduation portrait session at Leslie's house in Quito, Ecuador—the first time the friends had seen each other since a quarantine began four months earlier. The graduation ceremony is canceled this year. "I imagined that I was going to sing the hymn," said Leslie, "that I was going to hug everyone."
From NPR: How the World is Reinventing Rituals
TAILYR IRVINE
www.tailyrirvine.com | @tailyrirvine
Paula Castro wears earrings with her daughter Henny Scott’s face displayed. Henny Scott was 14 years old when she was found dead 200 yards from a home west of Lame Deer, Montana, US, in December 2018. She was missing 19 days before the FBI issued a public advisory based on information that was listed on the state’s public database website. The US Attorney’s Office did not pursue federal charges.
STEPHANIE MEI-LING
www.stephaniemeiling.com | @stephaniemeiling
Alem Bekele, Herani Bekele, and Bayza Anteneh pose in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, US, on the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington. Alem: "We're out here because we're tired of injustice, and we're here to make a difference for future generations."
From National Geographic: A Fractured and Traumatized Nation' Marches On, 57 Years Later
JESSICA CHOU
www.jessicachouphotography.com | @choutoo
Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza poses for a portrait in advance of the release of her new book, The Purpose of Power.
From The Guardian Weekend Magazine: ‘Every Movement I’ve Been in Has Been Infected By Patriarchy’
GLENNA GORDON
www.glennagordon.com | @glennagordon
A patient who traveled from Texas to California, US, receives a surgical abortion from Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, which serves many out-of-state clients. In the early months of the COVID-19 crisis, states hostile to abortion declared it a "nonessential" medical procedure, forcing women to take on great risk and expense. Though courts eventually forced the restoration of abortion access, women in twelve states had no access to abortion for weeks.
From CNN: She Tried to Get an Abortion During the Pandemic. Her State Wouldn’t Allow It.
MIRANDA BARNES
www.mirandabarnes.com | @mirandabarnes
Discipline disparities between Black and white boys have driven reform efforts for years. But Black girls are arguably the most at-risk student group in the United States.
From The New York Times: A Battle for the Souls of Black Girls
MEGHAN DHALIWAL
www.meghandhaliwal.com | @meghandhaliwal
A patient in the women's section of the COVID-19 ward at a makeshift military hospital in Mexico City, Mexico, uses a balloon to strengthen her lungs as she recovers from the virus.
ISADORA ROMERO
www.isadoraromero.com | @isadoraromerophoto
Mama Josefina Lema leads the Kuya Raymi ritual, celebrating Mother Earth and marking the beginning of the growing season, in the community of Camuendo Chico in Imbabura, Ecuador. Josefina is a guardian of seeds and a medicine woman. She uses the variety of seeds to prepare treatments for her patients. "Seeds are health, the more colors and varieties, the more diseases we can cure," she said.
LAURA MORTON
www.lauramortonphoto.com | @laurakmorton
Visitors space themselves out with the aid of circles painted on the grass at Dolores Park in San Francisco, California, US. The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department first painted the circles at Dolores and other city parks ahead of the Memorial Day weekend to encourage social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LAUREN CREW
www.laurencrew.com | @laurencrew
International Showgirl and twelve-time world record holder, including the record for spinning 200 hoops at once, Marawa Ibrahim poses underwater six months pregnant in her home in Los Angeles, California, US.
NICOLA MUIRHEAD
www.nicolamuirhead.com | @nmuirhead_photo
“When spring arrived and the sun appeared more and more each day, our porch plants started blooming. It felt like a rebirth—a pure and natural process, in spite of the coronavirus now spreading across London, UK.” This Polaroid was developed and then sprayed with bleach—part of a series of Polaroids distorted by the very disinfectants keeping us safe from the coronavirus. This series explores the psychological effects of the pandemic on our daily lives and the fear of the “unseen” virus.
KRISTINA BARKER
www.kristinabarker.com | @kristinabarker
Sean Mann, 15, seen here on September 10, was evacuated from his home in Beavercreek, Oregon, US, as wildfires continued to grow in rural Clackamas County. He and his family had spent the night at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby after evacuating their animals the night before. As they scrambled to pack personal belongings, the extended family of 10 also packed up and evacuated 14 horses and 6 dogs. “The sky was totally orange as far as we could see in all directions,” Susan High, a relative of Mann’s, explained about what conditions were like when they left their homes. Though they weren’t yet under an evacuation order, they wanted to have enough time to leave. “We didn’t want to do it in the middle of the night. When we saw the plume of smoke, we started to leave,” High explained.
From The New York Times: The Wildfires in Photos
MARYLISE VIGNEAU
www.marylisevigneau.com | @marylisevigneau
“During the pandemic I started a series of staged portraits of the local artists. This is a portrait of Johannes Heuer carrying his creature Egon across the Taya river, which used to constitute the border between Communist Czechoslovakia and the rest of the world.”
GULSHAN KHAN
www.gulshankhan.com | @gulshanii
Saaberie Chisty EMS Paramedic Mohamed Suhail Sobhey prays the afternoon prayer at the Saaberie Chisty Mosque, Johannesburg, South Africa, during the COVID-19 lockdown. For Suhail it could have been another day on the job, while fasting, during another Ramadan. The difference is that on this day he is working during a global pandemic when every callout is a risk to him and his loved ones; every patient is considered possibly COVID-19 positive.
“It is always difficult to work during Ramadan when energy is low, but now there is the additional stress of the virus too. We have been pushing extra shifts to help those who live further away, and those who use public transport and who cannot make it here because of the lockdown.”
IMAN AL-DABBAGH
www.photosbyiman.com | @photosbyiman
Zahra and Samer had hoped to be at a resort in Egypt for their wedding around this time. They married quietly at home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with three friends and five family members present, as the government ordered that no more than 10 people could gather in one place.
CALLAGHAN O’HARE
www.callaghanohare.com | @callaghan_ohare
A man who died from COVID-19 is seen wrapped in a body bag inside the COVID-19 ICU at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, US in June.
CONSTANZA HEVIA H.
www.constanzahevia.com | @constanzaheviah
Gail Roberson mourns the loss of her son at a chapel at Duggan's Funeral Service in San Francisco, California, US in March. In an attempt to stop the further spread of COVID-19, Duggan's has had to limit funeral services to fewer than 10 people, and only three visitors can come inside the funeral home at once to make arrangements or attend a wake.
From the San Francisco Chronicle: The Coronavirus Means No Large Funerals, But Online Services and More Remains to Store
JEENAH MOON
www.jeenahmoon.com | @jeenahmoon
A pastor wearing a protective mask is seen at Green-Wood Cemetery during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, US.
HILARY SWIFT
www.hilaryswift.com | @hlswift
Jefrey Scott Cameron's family place soil over the spot where his urn will lie in Barre, Vermont, US. Jefrey died from an accidental overdose on June 5. The number of drug-related deaths has skyrocketed in the United States since the start of the COVID-19 shutdowns.
KORAL CARBALLO
www.koralcarballo.com | @koralcarballo
Doña Eloísa's grandchildren. Aaron and Abraham are the second twins in the family.
Koral writes, “This photo of my twin nephews is from my project We Were Always Here. It’s part of the epilogue ‘Journey to the Root,’ and it's about my family and the whitening of our history that hides the African root that is in our blood. It is a memory of where we come from, of our grandmother who never named herself Afro-Indigenous, but through our bodies, we claim our origin without erasing our history.”
ÁNGELA PONCE
www.angela-ponce.com | @angelaponce_photo
Cemetery workers carry the coffin of a person who died from COVID-19 at the Nueva Esperanza cemetery in Lima, Peru.
VICTORIA RAZO
www.victoriarazo.com | @_victoriarazo
Feminist groups attend an event in Mexico City, Mexico, on September 14 in order to give an "anti-shout" in reference to the Day of Independence. They have gathered outside the former National Human Rights Commission, which was at that time taken by feminist collectives and mothers of victims of femicide and sexual assault, turning offices into a shelter for victims.
LAURENCE PHILOMÈNE
www.laurencephilomene.com | @laurencephilomene
Self-portrait lighting candles in my bedroom during the first COVID-19 outbreak, a month into home isolation in Montreal, Canada. I’m a chronically ill person, and my bedroom has always been a space of comfort—I like to create a space where I can escape the real world for a while.
This image was shot as part of my ongoing project Puberty—a self-portrait project which looks at the intimate and vital process of self-care as a nonbinary transgender person undergoing hormonal replacement therapy (HRT). Shot over a period of two years, it combines surreal colors and mundane environments to document daily moments and slow, subtle physical changes occurring during my transition.
From The Washington Post Magazine: Through the Eyes of Women
TAMARA MERINO
www.tamaramerino.com | @tamaramerino_photography
“A self-portrait with my son Ikal while he plays under the sheets with a lamp. Santiago, Chile, spent more than 140 days in mandatory quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploring the connection between mother, child, and nature while being in total lockdown with limited exposure to the outdoors, this photograph highlights the vital importance of the environment in society’s collective well-being.”
LEE-ANN OLWAGE
www.leeannolwage.com | @leeannolwage
“During the first eight weeks of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, I decided to turn the lens on myself to explore themes of vulnerability, isolation, and my own struggles with mental health through a series of self-portraits.”
GAIA SQUARCI
www.gaiasquarci.visura.co | @gaiasquarci
Ebony Kinch, who brings food to patients at Woodhull Hospital, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, US, poses for a portrait in front of the hospital. Kinch described the day she had to feed patients in the ER. “I’ve never seen nothing like that. I had to call out sick the next day. It was like a movie that I watched. I walk into the emergency room and everybody is laying down, looking half-dead. It was flooded, people in the gurneys, people in chairs. Everybody is at home watching the news. They don't see what I see. This has been one of the toughest times besides me growing up.”
LIBBY MARCH
www.libbymarchphoto.com | @libbymarch
Iyanna Cooke hugs her friend tightly during an impromptu gathering on Jefferson Street in Rochester, New York, US, at the site of Daniel Prude’s killing by police, after protesters abandoned a vigil for Prude at First Church of God to take to the streets in Rochester on September 3.
From the Washington Post: Seven Police Officers Suspended After Video Shows Hood Placed on Head of Black Man Who Later Died
FABEHA MONIR
www.fabehamonir.net | @fabeha.anahita
Three-year-old Ismat came to the Rohingya camp’s health care facility in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, for a COVID-19 test. Ismat’s mother, Sanowara, brought the child, as she suspects both her daughters got infected after coming in contact with her father-in-law, who has tested positive and is now in isolation. As of August 23, six Rohingya refugees had died from COVID-19, and 88 members of the community had tested positive for the virus. However, these numbers were based on tests conducted on 3,931 refugees, which is less than 1 percent of the Rohingya population in the camps.
ESTHER RUTH MBABAZI
www.esthermbabazi.com | @esther_mbabazi
A mother of five, Florence lost her ability to talk and hear at the age of four. Her children have grown up to understand how to communicate with their mother, and in most cases, they are the ones to translate for her when in the community. She enjoys communicating with her close family and neighbours and loves learning things about other people.
YAGAZIE EMEZI
www.yagazieemezi.com | @yagazieemezi
Protesters in Lagos, Nigeria, stand their ground in front of the local airport tollgate, causing a long halt to all traffic in the area. People across the globe continue to protest against Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), accusing the unit of unlawful arrests, rape, torture, and murder of young citizens. In various states across Nigeria, the protests, which began in October, were led by youth on the streets and on social media, sharing their stories, experiences, and updates via hashtags.
EMINE AKBABA
www.emineakbaba.com | @emine_akbaba
Portrait of Çiğdem Evcil in Istanbul, Turkey. Çiğdem has been fighting for women's rights in Turkey since her sister Muhterem Göçmen (31) was stabbed eight times by her husband, Serdar Göçmen, at her work in June 2013, after she filed for divorce and refused to reconsider her decision. "My sister had been exposed to his violence since her marriage 13 years ago. She could not bear it anymore and came back to Istanbul. She filed for divorce and wanted to start a new life in Istanbul," says Çiğdem. After Muhterem moved to Istanbul, Serdar constantly called and threatened her with death, showing up at her work and following her to her front door. The day before the crime he threatened her again. Serdar was taken into custody but released after a few hours by order of the prosecutor. The next day he murdered her.
JULIA ROBINSON
www.juliarobinson.com | @juliarphoto
Danielle López, a curandera, sets an intention against a section of the border wall in Hidalgo, Texas, US. López was taught by her grandmother that a pandemic arises out of an angry feminine spirit that senses the world is out of balance. López believes inequality is the root cause of the current pandemic, including the targeting of migrants and the poor.
ARIN YOON
www.arinyoon.com | @arinyoon
Joana Scholtz was the Democratic candidate for the Kansas House of Representatives in District 40, a swing district that has clearly been gerrymandered. She is a Black veteran and the president of the local NAACP chapter, and ran in a red state against Republican incumbent David French, who won the last election by only 60 votes. She decided to run for office after retiring from teaching because there were no Democratic candidates in her district challenging the incumbent. In her words, “None of us [her campaign staff] are politicians. We are just citizens who want to make a change.”
ELAINE CROMIE
www.elainecromie.com | @elaine_cromie
A crowd chants, "Stop the count," and pounds on the glass windows and doors to the entrance of the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center after the announcement that the capacity for partisan election challengers has been met on November 4 in Detroit, Michigan, US. Members of the Michigan GOP and some nonpartisan members believe that they are being excluded on the basis of party status. President Trump narrowly won Michigan in 2016, and both he and Joe Biden campaigned heavily in the battleground state in 2020.
NICOLE TUNG
www.nicoletung.com | @nicoletung
Demonstrators during their walk from the Ministry of Higher Education building to Tahrir Square, in Baghdad, Iraq, on February 9, as part of a university-student-led protest calling for government reforms. Since October 1, 2019, when the Tishreen (October) Revolution was launched by thousands of Iraqis taking to the streets, acts of civil disobedience, sit-ins, and protests have continued—primarily in Baghdad and the southern provinces. The youth-dominated demonstrations are calling for an overhaul of the country’s corrupt political system—and by extension the influence of Iran in Iraq’s politics—and for the government to address high unemployment particularly among the youth (which stood at 16.5 percent for 2019) and improve public services. Almost all have also called for the rejection of the United States’ interference in Iraqi matters, following the assassination of Major General Qassem Suleimani at the beginning of the year.
TAHILA MINTZ
www.tahila.net | @tahilasnap
“Every day Indigenous women are taken. They are kidnapped, raped, killed. This goes unreported in the news and ignored by police. My sisters are warriors, and I stand with this fight. I say their names every day. As Indigenous peoples, we stand in unity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Together we are healing the traumas of colonization. The imposed system of patriarchy is being dismantled by my sisterhood. We bring back a healthy, thriving matriarchal society of women supporting one another in taking care of our communities, supporting one another in empowering our people, supporting one another in safely thriving.”
ROSA PANGBABEAN
www.rosapanggabean.com | @rosa_panggabean
An abandoned church in Beriulou Village, Mentawai, Indonesia. The village lies empty after being destroyed by a tsunami 10 years ago. It is now filled with bushes and coconut trees; the road is used by locals and tourists going to the nearby surfing spots.
NELLY ATING
www.nellyating.com | @nelly_ating
“A self-portrait that captures my emotions battling strong signs of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)—a condition in which a woman has severe depression symptoms, irritability, and tension before menstruation.”
TRACY BARBUTES
www.tracybarbutesphotography.com | @tracybarbutes
Inmate firefighting crews arrive at a wildfire burning near San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy Power and Water plant along Highway 49 in Moccasin, California, US, on Thursday, August 20. “Shortly after creating this image,” Tracy recalls, “I returned home just a few miles away to collect my dog and belongings to evacuate.” More than 9,000 fires have burned 4,359,517 acres in California this year.
RANITA ROY
www.ranitaroy.com | @ranita3roy
This image represents the connection we’ve made with protective equipment during the pandemic, helping us to survive.
JESSICA SUAREZ
www.jessicasuarezphotography.com | @suarezjess
“An American green tree frog emerges from a flower pot in the evening to search for insects attracted to the light from our house. While canceling travel plans and staying home during the pandemic, I spent a lot of time observing and photographing the many wildlife species found in my own backyard outside Atlanta, Georgia, US.”
SU CASSIANO
www.sucassiano.com | @su_cassiano
Hnin comes from quite a conservative and religious Muslim family. She is an activist and advocates around issues such as sexual harassment within her punk community in Yangon, Myanmar. “People have a kind heart, but they need to learn. I want to create safer and safer spaces, this is my goal.”
IRINA UNRUH
www.irinaunruh.com | @irinaunruh
“A portrait of me reminds me of the horrible moments I witnessed during the nine years of my first relationship. My partner's father psychologically tyrannized the whole family. After the breakup, I felt left alone with all the experiences I had in this family. It was a kind of a ‘family secret,’ and I didn't talk either with my family or with close friends about what I saw and heard. It took me many years to understand that I witnessed up close a terrible form of emotional violence that did not leave me untouched emotionally and physically.”
ROSEM MORTON
www.rosem.xyz | @rosemmorton
Work Day: April 21, 2020
Confirmed cases of coronavirus in Maryland: 14,193
Coronavirus deaths in Maryland: 584
”I put on a mask before walking to the hospital. Everyone entering the hospital is required to have a mask on at all times. With the growing shortage of personal protective equipment, I am still figuring out the best way to conserve while keeping myself safe.”
From National Geographic: ‘I Feel Defeated’: A Nurse Details the Unrelenting Pressures of the Frontlines
MOLLY PETERS
www.mollypetersphoto.com | @hazardpeters
Smoke rises from the Ranch Fire burning in Azusa, California, US, seen from the road between Ontario and Los Angeles on August 15. By this point, the fire had consumed over 3,000 acres.
FABIOLA FERRERO
www.fabiolaferrero.com | @fabiolaferrero
Some of the food Venezuelan migrant Ángel Correa and his wife have inside their room, in a migrant community in Bogotá, Colombia. In these buildings, people have no fridge and need to keep the food in any space they have available.
RAISSA KARAMA
@raissa_rkar
Carine Baraka, 23, believes that the history of the Congo deserves to be rewritten by the Congolese, and that can be seen by the way she combs her hair and speaks. She encourages those around her to respect who they are, especially the girls. Carine was born and lives in Bukavu, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN
www.ilanapl.com | @ilanapl
Children run through the migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, as it is being fumigated.
From The New York Times: Inside the Refugee Camp on America’s Doorstep
KASIA STREK
www.kasiastrek.com | @kasia_strek
A red lightning bolt designed by feminist artist Ola Jasionowska has become the most prominent sign of the recent protests against the new abortion ban and for Polish women’s rights in general. According to the artist, it is supposed to bring a clear message: “Be careful, we warn you. We do not agree to take away fundamental rights.” Here it is projected onto a building in the district of Żoliborz, where Jarosław Kaczyński lives in Warsaw, Poland. He is the leader of the ruling party and the most divisive politician in the country.
SERRA AKCAN
www.serraakcan.com | @serraakcan
Women gather across Turkey to protest leaving the Istanbul Convention, which was prepared to protect women and LGBTQ+ people from violence and was signed by Turkey in 2011. All the demonstrations passed peacefully except in İzmir. Police blocked the crowd and didn’t let women and LGBTQ+ people march and make their press statement. When the group insisted on marching, police responded violently and took 16 women into custody. The crowd started sit-in protests for the detainees to be released.
RACHEL ELISE THOMAS
www.rachelelisethomas.com | @implied_wisdom
Michelle Nunn-Thomas, 61, quarantining while on temporary sick leave from work, observes what’s going on outside her bedroom window at her home in Southfield, Michigan, US.
EMILIENNE MALFATTO
www.emalfatto.com | @emiliennemalfatto
A young man cries in Baghdad, Iraq, during a symbolic funeral for a protester who was killed the day before during clashes between protesters and the security forces.
NADÈGE MAZARS
www.nadegemazars.com | @nadege_mazars
An activist of the Blue Shields (Escudos Azules) plays with a child after spending the day with the residents of the Los Altos de la Estancia slum in Bogotá, Colombia. The Blue Shields formed during the national strike that Colombia experienced at the end of 2019. They are one of the primeras lineas, “front lines,” that appeared in the Latin American demonstrations last year, particularly in Chile. They are active resistance: they protect the demonstrators from police violence with their shields, without violence on their part. In Los Altos de la Estancia, they line up in front of houses threatened with demolition.
CHIARA LUXARDO
www.chiaraluxardo.com | @chiaraluxardo
Queen Nicki Rangoon, 24 years old, poses for a portrait in her bedroom in Yangon, Myanmar. There is widespread discrimination and prejudice toward the local LGBTQ+ community, and the country is still plagued by section 377—a colonial-era law making homosexuality illegal. Nicki felt different since she was three years old. She says that before smartphones and social media became popular (which happened in the last five years), she was afraid of walking on the streets. These days a lot has changed, especially in Yangon. She proudly walks like a goddess, but she is constantly fighting for equal job opportunities and to be legally recognized. Nicki was photographed for Yangon Pride 2020.
CAMILLA FERRARI
www.camillaferrari.com | @camillaferrariphoto
A self-portrait taken during lockdown in Milan, Italy, while looking out the window at night. It's unusual to see so many lights on.
MAGGIE SHANNON
www.maggieshannon.net | @maggiehshannon
Voice actors like Susan Boyajian contribute the movie howls that make you jump. This image appeared in a story on the anatomy of a scream.
From The New York Times: They Scream! We Scream!
MOJGAN GHANBARI
www.mojganghanbari.com | @mo0jgaaan
A view of Tehran, Iran, in February 2020. “This is a photograph that I took the last time I was in a public place before the pandemic. Tehran doesn't look like the same place, to me. It is now in grief, with red dots like a metaphor for danger and blood.” Iran’s death toll from COVID-19 passed 40,000 in November.
Pre-Order the 2020 Women Photograph Annual Now!
Now available for pre-order: the limited edition Women Photograph 2020 Annual featuring the work of these 100 photographers. The annual is a 6x6 inch soft cover booklet that will ship in January 2021, worldwide.
And don’t miss the 2019, 2018, and the 2017 Year in Pictures!