Portraits of my family taken during Covid-19

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Adriana in Cincinnati via FaceTime from my apartment in Los Angeles, May 2020. This is a portrait of my youngest sister Adriana in Cincinnati, Ohio who is among the 2020 university students who graduated during COVID-19. Under normal circumstances, my family and I would have been there to celebrate her graduation and document this stage in her life. She is pictured here in her college bedroom where she has lived off and on for the last four years holding green card photographs she has kept of our parents who reside in Toledo, Ohio.

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Sisters Dania, Jamila, & Inti Noritz-Reyes via FaceTime in Toronto, July 2020. My cousins photographed at home in Toronto. The oldest, Jamila, is a lens based artist and a recent grad from OCAD University. “I am currently navigating and nourishing the relationship I have with my younger sisters. Reconnecting after a fallout with Inti and not speaking for 11 months, I have started to really notice behaviors and our ability or inability to respond to those behaviors. I love learning about them and rediscovering the impact they have in the work that I create. They have taught me how to be an older sister and ultimately how to be there for myself so that I can be there for them.” - Jamila Noritz-Reyes

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Sisters Dania, Jamila, & Inti Noritz-Reyes via FaceTime in Toronto, July 2020. My cousins photographed at home in Toronto. The oldest, Jamila, is a lens based artist and a recent grad from OCAD University. “I am currently navigating and nourishing the relationship I have with my younger sisters. Reconnecting after a fallout with Inti and not speaking for 11 months, I have started to really notice behaviors and our ability or inability to respond to those behaviors. I love learning about them and rediscovering the impact they have in the work that I create. They have taught me how to be an older sister and ultimately how to be there for myself so that I can be there for them.” - Jamila Noritz-Reyes

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Saul, Ybelia, Jamila, Inti & Dania Noritz-Reyes via FaceTime in Toronto, July 2020. “Beginning of quarantine was very difficult, I was at home in early March with the flu, wasn’t sure if it was COVID waited two-three days for a call back from tele health Canada. They suggested I stay home for 14 days regardless. The first few weeks, we felt trapped, annoyed with each others presence. We were all restless irritable and discontent. We isolated in our own spaces to stay out of each other’s way.. We had a falling out and had to have a family sit down and called each other out on our crap and misunderstanding without blame. A mega three hour therapy session that cleared a lot of tension and misunderstanding, after a lot of crying and hurt and healing words and hidden feelings. As time went on we got used to the not so normal, and that’s when things got better and fun. We would eat together, sit and hang out together, playing ping pong saved us and playing dominoes as a family bonded us with laughter, music and endless snacks. But all in all it was a testament of communication and listening to each other without blaming. Being honest and being willing to listen deeply to one another and admit our faults and short comings. Strength and courage. I was so proud of my gals, they were able to put words to the endless days of anger and strained faces, of emotional frustration. Very seldom we made the opportunity to sit and talk it out. They amazed me, it was a humbling experience for me in particular.” - Saul

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Sisters Inti & Dania Noritz-Reyes via FaceTime in Toronto, July 2020. Inti is 20 years old and will be starting the Acting for Media program at George Brown in January. “..during that time Dania and I grew a lot closer cause she was the only one I talked to but my relationship with Dania is definitely more childish and very giggly compared to the one I now have with Jamila. I guess that has something to do with their ages, but we’ve definitely gotten a lot closer after this past year.” - Inti Dania is 16 years old and will be entering her last year of High School in the fall. After school she dreams of traveling and making a positive impact on people’s lives.

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Sofia and Braulio Carrion via FaceTime in Toronto, August 2020. Siblings Sofia and Braulio at home in Toronto. Braulio is studying computer engineering at University of Waterloo. “Summer was hard at first since I was supposed to be doing my co-op term and jobs were slowly being cancelled. Evidently, searching became difficult. I took this chance to work on many coding projects and even participate in InternHacks where my team won “Best Technical Problem”. Overall, it’s been a new experience, but as time went on, it became the new norm.” - Braulio, 19 He moved back home for the lockdown in March and will be staying put for the foreseeable future as all his classes will go online in the fall. He dreams of moving to California and working with one of the big tech companies like Nvidia or Google.

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Siblings Sofia & Braulio Carrión via FaceTime in Toronto, August 2020. “When I heard that my classes were cancelled, I was upset and mostly angry. I didn’t want to miss school, fall back, and not be able to enjoy learning the subjects I had started to like at the beginning of the semester. After a while though, I got so used to living and studying at home that it felt as if it had been this way my whole life. I quickly accommodated to this new learning environment and found it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The best part of this big change, is that I get to spend more time with my family, and do the things I love. I have been able to be more creative this summer and really appreciate the time I spend with others.” - Sofia, 14

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Chloe Martin-Noritz in Toronto via FaceTime from my apartment in Los Angeles, July 2020. This is a portrait of my cousin Chloe in her bedroom in Toronto, Canada. Chloe is 11 years old and will be starting 6th grade in the fall. I asked her what she’s been keeping busy with this summer and she said a lot of Fortnite and bike rides with friends. Chloe has been playing soccer since she was 4 years old. The league has been on pause because of COVID but she hopes to start practice again soon in small groups. Chloe’s favorite subjects are Art and Social Studies, specifically learning about First Nations histories and aspires to be a Gynecologist when she is older.

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My uncle Franz with his partner Sean and their two children, Michael and Chloe Martin-Noritz via FaceTime in Toronto, July 2020. “Working from home and trying to keep our kids busy with school and not playing Fortnite was an incredible difficult challenge for us. Our kids didn’t see any point in continuing studies because there was no in classroom instruction. It was also difficult taking on new work processes because we had to work from home. We resented the fact that our home had to become our workplace and our gym, bakery, coffee shop. We developed a level of vigilance around self-care and making sure that everything was washed and cleaned, which we have never had to do before. It caused us anxiety and panic at times. Sean and I also find ourselves being a lot more short tempered around many things. I equate this to just the stress and anxiety that came with living through a pandemic. When George Floyd was murdered we as a family had very hard and difficult conversations. We found our kids had a tough time comprehending why Black men are treated so badly by police. Sean also had to field a lot of stupid questions from his colleagues at work about anti-Black racism. He also felt responsible to educate his white counterparts about anti-Black racism and resent it because no one was willing to do their own work on learning.”

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My sister Vanessa in Upstate New York via FaceTime, July 2020 “I read this thing recently that described how being too in your head robs you of making memories. You’re not really where you are or feeling things enough to save them. So I’ve been actively trying to be where I am, with who is there with me, and feel things deeply so I can remember them.” - Vanessa

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Caroline Guennel via FaceTime in Toronto, Sept 2020. Caroline is an early childhood educator and works at a daycare center in Etobicoke, Ontario. “I wasn’t working for the majority of quarantine, but my boyfriend, Ching was. The two of us live together, so this translated to a lot of alone time. I took advantage of all this free time by finally starting to exercise at home. I also started propagating plants as a hobby. I wanted to see what type of demand there was for houseplants online so I decided to try selling my potted plant cuttings via local classified websites. Turns out plants sell! So I continued to pot more plants and kept busy posting ads.” - Caroline

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Ching Poeung photographed via FaceTime in Toronto, Sept 2020 “I’ve been playing soccer since the age of 8. When I came to Canada at 15 years old, I did not speak any English or have any friends at the time. As a new immigrant residing in a low income neighbourhood in Toronto, I found my place on the soccer pitch. Playing pick-up soccer in my community and for my high school team is where I made some of my closest friends. On the pitch I was part of a team and felt a new sense of belonging, and it definitely had a part in keeping my friends and I out of trouble. Through my high school soccer team I was fortunate enough to be offered a youth volunteer coaching opportunity with the Toronto Azzurri Soccer Club. I now coach at the same soccer club for a team registered with Special Olympics Ontario. I am thankful for the opportunity and the privilege to help in creating a community that provides equal and inclusive opportunities to individuals with intellectual disabilities to play, socialize and of course have fun.”

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Ching & Caroline via FaceTime in Toronto, Sept 2020 “Ching and I started spending our free time going on bike rides together and trying to get out of our apartment. I think he was a bit more concerned about me. He didn’t like the idea of me being indoors all day while he was at work. Ching loves being active, so he got a bit restless not being able to play soccer or go to the gym. We got on each others nerves a bit and the nagging might have gotten out of hand on more than one occasion, but we’ve also been trying to be more patient with one another. I’ve personally loved being able to spend more time with him, even if it’s time spent just sitting on the couch watching Netflix.” - Caroline

Portraits of my family taken during Covid-19

Latest Projects

Fluorite Fantasia (Looking For My Father...)

Bed Checks

This Isn't Divide and Conquer

Proof Of Existence

Horizon

I saw a tree bearing stones in the place of apples and pears

Portraits of my family taken during Covid-19

Latest Projects

Fluorite Fantasia (Looking For My Father...)

Bed Checks

This Isn't Divide and Conquer

Proof Of Existence

Horizon

I saw a tree bearing stones in the place of apples and pears

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