Franklin Street Limbo documents the suspension of normality during the early months of the Covid pandemic. As stay-at-home orders took effect in March 2020, my housemates and I were suddenly afloat. Routines changed, privacy became rare, and birthday celebrations moved onto the front lawn. I found both witness and refuge making these photographs as a way to process the anxieties we were living through.
It was New Year’s 2019, and I toasted to 2020 like it owed me something. Every year begins with hope, but this felt different. The 2010s were finished, and I was ready for optimism in this new decade. 2020 was fun to say, there were 20/20 vision jokes, and Parasite had just won Best Picture.
That Valentine’s Day, I attended a friend’s lavish house party in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood. A lovely night of champagne, absinthe, satin and lace. That party is now known as my last outing before the covid lockdown, I would soon be sanitizing groceries.
