A Time of Distance

The COVID-19 Visual Project. A Time of Distance began life as a multimedia platform with the aim of becoming a permanent archive on the pandemic. In its entirety, it is a collection that includes a variety of content aimed at recounting the health crisis, the social and individual consequences and the economic impact that characterize this unexpected period in history. A platform where internationally renowned photographers and video makers, visual artists and journalists, leave their indelible mark. The images touch upon the most important themes linked to the pandemic, such as the health crisis, empty cities, lockdown, the economic effects, social sacrifices and personal consequences, nature's recovery and the new normal. The book, edited by Arianna Rinaldo, seeks to be a compendium of this period of history distinguished by unique events that have touched different parts in the world in the same way, producing side effects characterized by cultural and social particularities. Punctuated by chapters on different themes, A Time of Distance aims to portray the events, reactions and widespread mood, without seeking to be exhaustive, instead offering a wide range of stories from different places around the world. The ultimate objective is to be a testimony and a space that collects significant visual accounts of this historical phase, to which we can return to try to understand what happened, how and why; and to remember a period during which humanity as a whole was forced to press "pause" as one. A Time of Distance puts itself forward as the "repository" of a collective historical memory, to help prevent us from forgetting the time of separation that we all had to live through and which we all sought to survive, each in our own way.