Phoenix from the Flames

Day 9 - NYC

It’s Day 9 in #NYC and I can already see the effects of a total commercial shutdown. One of the greatest cities in the world, a city I call home and the epicenter of the #COVID-19 outbreak in America, brought to its knees. I never imagined myself and my family, and by extension you reading this, would ever live through a global crisis such as this. It’s almost unimaginable. I now find myself looking at life through a dystopian like prism. Distorted. Raw. Grim. I recoil in horror when I see people shaking hands, kissing, touching, coughing on TV and in films – streaming to the masses in every living room throughout the world. What was once normal, now enviable if not despised.

And yet, despite my almost daily trips out to forage for either food or cleaning supplies and the rare 40 mins exercise with the kids, I find an ethereal beauty to a mighty city devoid of cars or people.

I feel the urge to capture these images, because despite our “new normal", I firmly believe there will be an end to this. It may not be tomorrow but certainly in the not too distant future, a time when we have all come through the eye of the needle. It will be our generation's VE Day, our Phoenix from the flames and I can’t wait to experience it. Let’s continue to social distance, wash hands, stay safe, #flattenthcurve, only listen to experts and we can all experience that day together. Photos: Mark O'Toole