2021-03-20

For the last 365 days, we’ve all been busy counting. Counting the infected and the number of dead. Counting hospital beds, ventilators, available PPE. Counting the days since the shut-down began and the last time we hugged grandparents, friends, loved ones. Counting empty seats in classrooms, public libraries, restaurants, and cafeterias. Counting the number of Black people killed by American police and Asian Americans attacked in city streets. Counting protests. In the midst of so much unquantifiable grief, there has been new life, too. Which is why Kurt and I returned to re-photograph Reed, Linda, Jed, Lexi, and Enzo Francisco, each with their family in the exact location where we first took their family’s picture, back before Reed, Linda, Lexi, Jed, and Enzo Francisco were born. We took the last two pictures of this series on March 16, 2021, one year after we photographed each other on our respective front porches on March 16, 2020 and announced that we were starting a new artwork. Our artwork is now 1 year old and we are letting it go. We are thankful it helped us keep track of the days and months; we are grateful it brought us 6 feet close to so many people. We look forward to seeing everyone again before too long—maybe at a big celebration in the not-so-distant future when we will be able to eat cake and hug each other freely. –Kremena and Kurt