Macarena Bazo
INTERSPACE
To every teenager who went through a hard time during the pandemic.
Macarena Bazo
When I was 9 years old, I got into photography when taking pictures with my mom’s phone. I loved the idea of capturing a moment in time and being able to look back at it whenever I wanted, creating special memories and making people happy when they saw the pictures. 2020 was a very important year for me because there were many changes, which ranged from a global pandemic to a political crisis in Peru, my country. By living life through social media, due to social distancing, I encountered different challenges to express what I was feeling. Because of this, I believe in the importance of portraying the different emotions that teenagers experienced due to these problems. Therefore, I relied on my passion for photography to convey the teenagers’ response to the COVID-19 lockdown. In order to take all of the pictures in this book, there had to be a certain distance between the model and me for safety reasons, but all of that Interspace was filled with ideas, creativity and connection.
Macarena Bazo
Fear Many people feared for their families’ health. At the beginning it was said that teenagers had a lower risk of catching the virus, so many of us were concerned for our families’ well being, but also for ourselves and our own health.
Anxiety Everybody was anxious during the lockdown. Whether it was because they felt alone, worried because of the virus, or even because of school. People who already suffered from anxiety got worse and there were many new cases as well. Anxiety is not only a mental disorder, but it is a feeling we all experience, especially in times of crisis.
Grief The pandemic has not only affected us by making us go into quarantine, but it has also taken a lot of our loved ones. Unfortunately, a lot of people have lost family members, friends, and acquaintances. It was a time of grieving. These pictures represent the 5 stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.
Loneliness We spent most of the year at home. It was very hard to socialize and talk to other people that were not the ones who we live with. Many teenagers felt alone, like they had no one to talk to or be with. We felt trapped inside our own homes, full of desire to go outside.
Sadness Sadness is a good way of summarizing most of the negative emotions that we felt throughout the year 2020. People usually relate being lonely, anxious, scared, etc., to being sad, and unluckily for us, these were most of the emotions that we felt during the lockdown. However, it is okay to be sad sometimes, and to let all of those negative feelings out.
Helplessness One of the most inevitable things that happened in 2020, was seeing friends or family members going through a hard time. It was so frustrating to see how people were suffering, knowing that we could not do anything about it. This was mainly because we could not even see each other or get comfort from a hug.
Stress
Online school wasn’t easy for everyone. Stress came mostly because we feared doing bad at school, or because it was hard to understand some topics. We also got a lot of it from the news. If we turned the TV on to try to ‘catch up on the news’, everything would be very negative and pessimistic. This caused us discomfort, thus stressing us out.
Empowerment Despite every challenge we went through, there were some positive parts. During a lot of events throughout 2020, we felt empowered to make a change. Whether it was at school, our country or the whole world. Sometimes these could make us feel impotent, so we were determined to make a change, even if it was very small.
Resilience Although this year was full of ups and downs, we were able to get through it. We were alone most of the year, so we had to learn how to pick up the pieces of our own puzzles by ourselves.
Models: Matias Saldaña Micaela Llerena Micaela Ferreira Fernanda Llanos Rafaela Diaz Alejandra Dominguez Kenzo Ito Dana Paz Ilan Mitma
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Personal Project 2021 Macarena Bazo