Luther, Lester, Elsa, Aumaine, and Victor

A family stands on the front porch of a brick home with columns: a chicken perches next to a man wearing an apron and a surgical mask holding a shovel, a woman stands to his left, her hand on his back with her dark hair in a pony tail. Three children stand on the steps: all with long blonde hair. The girl seated in the middle holds a cat.

Aumaine: “This is a hard time for everyone. I struggle with depression and for the first month of quarantine all I could do was survive. We have three children, K-4th grade, and I have been overwhelmed by the rigors of facilitating their education and managing the expectations of their three different schools. We had to close our restaurant of 14 years, Stella’s Kentucky Deli, for three weeks and although we have reopened with the help of a government loan, the financial hit we have already taken will make it nearly impossible to survive the next winter. The uncertainty that this experience has introduced into our lives is excruciating.

Despite this, we know that we are fortunate. We are healthy. Our children are healthy. We have a yard. We live in Kentucky and are governed by the calm common sense and gentle kindness of Andy Beshear, to whom we listen every night. So we move forward together through the darkness, holding both the pain and the light in our hearts.”

Lexington in the Time of COVID-19 is an artwork about people practicing social distancing at a time of a deadly virus. And also offering kindness.

Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova capture photographs at the periphery of American culture, where drag queens, discarded couches, and abandoned motel signs exist.