Take Cover! re·sil·ience
| rəˈzilyəns | (also resiliency) noun the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness In the future, words like pandemic, social distancing, corona and lantern flies may be farfetched in our civilized world but in the year 2020, they served a purpose. Especially when shooting the cover for this issue – our 2020 Salute to Service edition. As we have been doing for more than a dozen years, it came time for RowHome to gather the prestigious winners of our annual Blue Sapphire Award. It was their time to shine on the cover of our final issue of the year. But the only thing shining that September day was the sun. Accompanied by gusts of wind that kept blowing our backdrop down every time our photographer Andrew and Art Director Omar attempted to set things up before our guests arrived. The blasts of air provided little respite from the blazing sun that beat down on them through multiple attempts to get things right. Then there were the flies. Omar, who drove four hours from Connecticut to be with us, thought they were stink bugs. But Andrew knew better. “Kill them!” he hollered out to Omar, who was dripping in sweat. But Omar refused to add a stench to the confusion. Apparently, the pesty lantern flies had not yet landed in Connecticut and Omar didn’t understand Andrew’s strange reaction to the swarms surrounding them. With only minutes to spare, we quickly switched gears and brought the whole thing inside Popi’s Italian Restaurant, thanks to our gracious and accommodating host, owner Gina Rucci. As you can see, this was no ordinary cover shoot. This was a cover shoot during a global pandemic where serious guidelines were dictated in order to accomplish our task. Our winners, who usually nibble on soft pretzels while waiting to gather for a friendly group hug in the final shot had to be photographed individually by our masked team – all adhering to social distancing guidelines. Instead of handshakes and well wishes, they had to wave at each other from across an empty room. Masks in place upon arrival, each was called into the empty restaurant (outside dining only during the pandemic) for their five minutes of fame. It felt more like school picture day than a magazine cover shoot but we pulled it off! The perfect pandemic cover photo! We raise a glass to the resilience of the human spirit. We thank all of our award winners for their endurance and congratulate them on winning the Blue Sapphire Award in a year that will forever be logged in the history books. These social distancing guidelines may restrict us, but they will never hold us back. Until we meet again! Stay safe. Stay strong. And be kind to one another. Our babies are watching.
photos by Andrew Andreozzi Dorette & Dawn River to River. One Neighborhood.
art direction by Omar Rubio hair / The Cutting Point makeup / Bella Angel guest Scheduling / Brenda Hillegas & Carol Vassallo location / Popi’s Italian Restaurant
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| ROWHOME MAGAZINE | October / November / December 2020
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