In The Air

  • Dates
    1989 - 2025
  • Author
  • Location Paraguay, Paraguay

En El Aire ( In The Air). Is a photography book published in 2024. Composed by triptychs as photographic document of Covid pandemic in Paraguay. The text that accompanied each triptych is taken from others historic pandemic.

From the first day the Covid-19 plague was declared in Paraguay (March 16, 2020) and for the two years it lasted, I went out to photograph practically every day. Taking advantage of the rare privilege of not having to abide by the lockdown, I walked through empty streets, markets and supply stores, hospitals and cemeteries, prisons, temporary shelters, and schools. The first thing I thought, as a reflex, was that if others couldn't do it, then my work of observing and sharing images of reality would be more important than ever. As the crisis was global, there was also a sense of responsibility, that of showing Paraguay to the entire world. The media everywhere published thousands of photographs, including mine. "In the Air" is just that, the account of the things I saw during that time, a time when loneliness was no stranger to me. JS August 2023

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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A man crosses the Eusebio Ayala Avenue bereft of traffic, during curfew in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, March 16, 2020. Authorities have decreed a curfew from 8pm to 4am in an attempt to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization, most people recover in about two to six weeks from the virus, depending on the severity of the illness. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Fabian Ramirez, 11, and members of his family scavenges a trash container for vegetables that were discarded at the "Mercado de Abasto," a market for vendors, during the fourth week of a quarantine to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, April 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Gillermina de Figueredo, 72, who wears a mask too prevent COVID-19 sells old newspapers to use as envelope at Mercado in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, May 5, 2020. The government authorized the opening of some stores under the plan coined “Intelligent quarantine.” (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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People, some wearing mask to prevent Cortonavirus spread, line to receive free lunch from a popular pot at “Bañado Sur” neighborhood In Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Women of this neighborhood help with donations most of this people that work in recycling, task not allowed by Government’s lockdown last five weeks. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Urinals with pandemic protocol regulation are seen in a shopping center in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 5, 2020. The government authorized the opening of some stores under the plan coined "Intelligent quarantine”.(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Nurse Mirian Arrua, right, talks to press members before receive the Sputnik vaccine first shot in this country from Paraguay’s Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni, unseen, at Hospital Nacional in Itaugua, Paraguay, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Inmates stand in the outdoor patio within Tacumbu jail, the largest prison in the country, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, July 29, 2020. Forty inmates amid just over 2,000 are isolated and visits were suspended after five prisoners tested positive for COVID-19, according to Justice Minister Cecilia Pérez. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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A man talks to a member of MNCT, National Mechanism to Prevent Torture, at a shelter for COVID-19 quarantine near Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, June 18, 2020.(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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A van carrying a woman to hospital go through the protest where people protest for the resignation of People protest calling for the resignation of President Mario Abdo Benitez over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the state of the public health system, near his official residence in Asuncion, Paraguay, Sunday, March 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Eustaquio Ruiz, 46 years old, sick of covid-19 waits on the stretcher to be treated at the door of Ineram Hospital ICU in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, May 24, 2021. Ruiz was not attended at Ineram because saturation of beds and neither in other three hospitals before. AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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A nurse holds the hand of a patient in the intensive care unit dedicated to people with COVID-19 at the Ineram Hospital in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, Aug. 21, 2020. In the past month, the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in Paraguay has multiplied by five, according to numbers released by the Health Ministry. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Truck driver Arnaldo Martinez, a COVID-19 patient, sits up in a hospital bed in an intensive care unit of the National Hospital in Itaugua, Paraguay, Wednesday, March 17, 2021, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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A Dr. tell to relatives of a Covid-19 patient that he is deceased, at ICU of National Hospital in Itaugua, Paraguay, Wednesday, April 28, 2021. According Health Ministry the daily number of people died by COVID-19 surpasses a hundred this week. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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A body of a person a died by COVID-19 at ICU is carried by health workers to the morgue at Clinicas Hospital in San Lorenzo, Paraguay, Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Health Ministry informed a record of 110 people died by Covid-19 on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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The daughters of Isidra Coronel cry after she died by Covid-19 at Hospital de Clinicas in San Lorenzo, Paraguay, Friday, June 18, 2021. According Health Ministry, Paraguay is one of the South America’s highest rate in Covid-19 related deaths by million of inhabitants. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Doctor Lilio Airala are blocked by police to reach Presidential Residence during doctors union protest for better work conditions and medical resources to fight against Covid-19 pandemic in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, May 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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People throw stones to riot police during a protest against the government of President Mario Abdo Benitez in response to the shortage of medications for COVID-19 patients in hospitals and the low availability of the vaccine against the new coronavirus, amid the resignation of the country’s health minister, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, March 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - A man Fishes at Paraguay river during Covid Pandemic in Mariano Roque Alonso, Paraguay, July 10, 2020.(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
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A man Fishes at Paraguay river during Covid Pandemic in Mariano Roque Alonso, Paraguay, July 10, 2020.(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Members of a family walk at the bay beach that looks with reddish sky and with a lot of smoke, due to the large number of fires in the countryside, in Asuncion, Paraguay , Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021. The fire it’s started by human to burn pastures and normally turn out of control. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

© Jorge Saenz - Image from the In The Air photography project
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Neotropic Cormorants fly at sunset near the Paraguay River, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Sunday, April 18, 2021. Neotropic Cormorants are medium-sized birds found throughout the American tropics and subtropics, from the middle Rio Grande and the Gulf and Californian coasts of the United States south through Mexico and Central America to southern South America. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

In The Air by Jorge Saenz

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