When the stay-at-home order came into effect in April, I wasn't able to leave the house or create the same way I'm used to. I wasn’t able to photograph people. But I was still craving human connection and had a strong desire to create.
Then an idea hit me. What if I can co-create with others while social distancing. What would that look like?
So I put a call out to my social media community asking if anyone wanted to participate in a 30-day selfie challenge. The only task was to take a selfie every day, without a filter.
To my surprise, a LOT of people signed up — people from all over the world. Old friends from high school, front line workers, other artists. And what surprised me more was that many of them fulfilled the commitment and submitted selfies every day.
But what started out as an art project turned out to also be an incredible social experiment.
My selfie-takers shared their most vulnerable moments with me. Grief, laughter, happiness, boredom, exhaustion. The participants had no idea what the others were submitting nor how similarly these vulnerable moments were.
After seeing these results I no longer feel alone, even though I’m still in self-isolation. I think this project made me understand the emotional impact of the world pandemic even more. I believe that at some point throughout the past months we all felt one or all of these emotions - alone, but collectively.
We all felt sad
2. We all felt like we’re going crazy
3. We all felt like a nice beverage at some point…
4. We all felt bored
5. We all felt creative
6. We all allowed ourselves to feel happy
7. Face masks were definitely a theme
8. We all had a weird hair day
9. We all felt we needed a buddy
10. We all felt that we’re just done with this COVID BS
10. But most importantly we all felt hopeful
This project isn't really over. I still have a few ideas up my sleeve. But in the meantime, I wanted to highlight just a few of the ways we really and truly are 'all in this together'.
Stay safe out there friends.
xx
Bettina
PS: Which one of these emotions can you relate to? Let me know in the comment section.
