In the past year, local photographer Kathleen Greeson has visited with people on six continents, camera in hand. Her visits were remote, but the intimate slices of life she managed to capture helped her subjects feel connected.
“People would often say participating in the project made them feel less alone. Looking back, I realize how much I needed all those little points of connection, too,” she says.
Her “Safe At Home” project includes 150 portraits (and counting) of people in places including Thailand, South Africa, Italy and right here at home, captured through FaceTime, Facebook Messenger video and WhatsApp. She’s photographed families in the process of trying to adopt and at the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. She’s witnessed the extreme loneliness and small pockets of joy carved from quarantine.
“When the world started to shut down in March of 2020, I started thinking about how I could document the pandemic,” Greeson says. “I knew I couldn’t be out on the front lines covering the story, because like so many around the world, I was also staying safe at home with my family.”
An award-winning photographer, her black-and-white images relay the stark reality of a world in lockdown, but with the gentle warmth of candid photos. “People let their guards down. That was really refreshing,” she says.