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Celeste Alonso | Buenos Aires, Argentina

It has been more than a month since the obligatory preventive social isolation began in Argentina. I am spending the quarantine alone in my apartment. Although I always enjoy being alone, now the loneliness feels different, and my mood and feelings have been changing as the days go by. The poem is by Idea Vilariño: "Just waiting for them to fall, to be spent, to pass, the days, the minutes, the seconds left."

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Rehab Eldalil | Cairo, Egypt 

To manage my anxiety I've been swimming twice a week religiously for the past 6 years. I haven't swam for 6 weeks, I miss the water and I miss the blue. To me swimming is a cleansing ritual, one which I'm now unable to practice.

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Fabeha Monir | Dhaka, Bangladesh 

What shall I do? Shall I take a photograph, write a poem, draw my thoughts on canvas which shall last longer than isolation? In this timeless existence, which, as I grow older, is plunged into more and more crepuscular periods, I have continually seen the forms of perfect life strive to give way to others more simple, closer to primitive humility. Yes, life has frozen in time. I stare at outside belonging, searching for answers to my question of safety, caution. Shall I be ever able to break the sense of danger? It is the abode for the lonely, disconsolate souls, observing metamorphosis – one day our individual scars will become our collective freedom. And I shall wait for this.

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Lee-Ann Olwage | Cape Town, South Africa 

Black Swan

An unpredictable or unforeseen event, typically one with extreme consequences.

I have often been asked why I have never turned the lens on myself. Honestly, like most photographers, I hate being photographed. In a time when I'm unable to work with others I decided to develop a series of self-portraits titled Black Swan to help me navigate everything I'm experiencing and processing at this time. I'm currently exploring themes of isolation, vulnerability and my own struggles with mental health.

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Margarita Valdivieso | Medellin, Colombia 

Sometimes we find refuge in being alone. It is what guides us to a safe space, separated and isolated from others. Other times we can't escape from loneliness; it is difficult to connect with others, to create a certain kind of intimacy. The current situation highlights undercurrents of tension around intimacy and isolation in public space. The focus of life turns inward, changing our understanding of our connection to the city and to each other.  These portraits are part of a photo-video essay composition that explore bittersweet memories of places and human relationships  during lockdown. A collaborative work between Margarita Valdivieso & Denise Lee.

News Spotlight
Highlights from Native's Instagram Feed: Self-Portraits from Quarantine
native agency
Jul 28, 2020

In April as COVID-19 had begun to shake the world we asked our photographers here at Native to document their experiences in quarantine through self-portraits. Here is a selection of what we received. 

To view the whole collection, follow us on Instagram as we begin a take over this week highlighting the realities of our storytellers across the world during the last four months of the pandemic.

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