Being human, the world of human beings is the one we tend to notice most. The crowds. The interplay of people. The buzz and bustle of what we call daily life.
But sometimes, behind that daily life, another variety of daily life exists. Now it is starting to reveal itself.
For weeks in some places, months in others, swaths of humanity have zipped themselves into hibernation, trying to ride out a viral storm that has killed some and sickened many more. As humans have disappeared into that coronavirus cocoon, though, other things have asserted themselves.
Animals, for one. And emptiness. And, counterintuitively, the majesty of some of the structures that humans have created for themselves.
This past week, Associated Press photographers documenting the era of COVID-19 were dispatched to chronicle a single theme: “Our Majestic World.” The goal: Capture a changing landscape that contains few – if any – humans and showcase the things that, for this moment in history, have taken their place. “Take your time,” these often in-the-moment photojournalists were told. “Work the light.”