The Phillips Collection invites everyone to participate in Community in Focus, a community project to capture a unique photographic snapshot of an unprecedented year. We asked you to show us your inimitable spirit, suffering, joy, and resilience, and here are some images that captures those human emotions that connect us all. Stay tuned for more photos and submit your own!
Angela Napili, June 5: Painters create Black Lives Matter Plaza on the morning of June 5.
Shia Levitt, September 9: On September 9, the sun didn’t rise. It was blocked by smoke from nearby wildfires, leaving the sky apocalyptic orange all day. As the kids joined their zoom classes, I was struck by the reassuring voices of their teachers, providing a bit of normalcy despite surreal circumstances of 2020.
Andrea Crews, May 4: “Look mommy kids!” I captured a photo of my daughter as she starred out the window longing to play with new friends. The pandemic prevents her from playing as freely as she had before. Now subjected to third floor hellos and masked goodbyes in cramped apartment stairwells, longing for what was.
Dorie Denbigh-Laurent, November 18: Nadia, 14, in the time of Covid.
Tim Davis, August 28: This photo was taken August 28, 2020, on the 57th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. This year, thousands came to Washington to restore and recommit to the dream. We also marched for justice for those murdered and for a renewed commitment to change in the US. This photo of what I call “Waiting on the front line,” speaks volumes to us all, a participant waiting, pray-fully, hoping for a change for the better and this injustice stops.
Sandra Kauffman, September 5: St. John’s Church in Washington, DC, boarded up its stained glass windows after the George Floyd protests. Then it invited local artists to paint the boards with portraits of civil rights icons, in order to deliver a message of love and hope.