A selection from a film portrait series featuring 100 friends and acquaintances in their neighborhoods between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles during the first 7 months of the pandemic. This project, later named after a song by The Cramps, was created in response to living in near total isolation in early lockdown due to some pre-existing health issues that, at the time, increased my risk of complications from the then-unmanaged threat of Covid. As a result, shooting these photos became my way of socializing safely and maintaining a small sense of community and purpose.
I asked all of my subjects to present themselves however they wanted to be seen and had no preview of the locations in advance. Since I'm fortunate to know a lot of fun personalities, the outcome is a pretty diverse cast of characters. Though much of the pandemic has resulted in inconceivable pain, hardship, and loss, I wanted to focus on our capacity to adapt, and to conjure a feeling of frivolous familiarity in an increasingly foreign world. My hope is that all who happen upon this series feel the same unusual joy I discovered while making these images, and connect with the energy of each person depicted, despite their half-covered faces.
The full 82 image series now lives in print form as my third self-published photo zine, available here.
April - November, 2020