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Photo Story #1 - a village outside Milan, Italy during the lockdown

Introduced by G P Kennedy
 When Coronavirus struck Italy was hit early and hard. As of April 23, 2020, this country of around 60 million has nearly 190, 000 confirmed cases and in excess of 25, 500 deaths from Covid-19.
 One in seven people who catch the virus die from it, in Italy. The country acted swiftly and decisively to arrest the pandemic and the curve is flattening, as a result. The country remains on lockdown. Ellie gives us a slice of daily life with her moving images and thoughts.

Words and images from Ellie – Milan, Italy
 I am an artist and researcher currently based in a small town near Milan, Italy.
My photographic work has been exhibited in the United States and Italy (FotoFest, Houston, 2020, Project 019, Palermo, 2018 and many others) and is in the permanent collection of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, South Texas College, and The Center for Creative Photography. I hold a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas. I am currently a PhD candidate in visual culture.


#1
Every day at 6pm, the neighborhood church tolls its bell, the official daily update press conference is held and the closed coffee shop at the roundabout blasts the anthem through gigantic speakers, with the owner waving his hand.
And the church, dating from the 17th c (the time of the last plague in Milan) gives an assurance that the world will go on after this is over. And me? I am only grateful that I didn't infect my family after my intensive crisscrossing of the city all February long.









#2
The epidemic has radically changed the Italian psyche. Besides the empty streets and squares, the closed coffee shops, the sudden removal of physical sociability, we are constantly reminded of the aftermath of WWII. That war brought destruction, but also hope, and the difficult years afterwards, the hard work and sacrifices, gave way to the economic boom and prosperity. Ironically, it is that generation that gave the most victims in the current calamity.











#3
If anything, the public spirit has been manifested through these homemade posters. #EverythingWillBeAllRight is the tagline of the day and these drawings of rainbows - are the sign of encouragement and expectation of future peace. Flags abound. But anger towards the politicians and the mistakes they made, mistakes that aided the outbreak, is seething.












#4
Our yard has not been mowed for months. Yard work is considered non-essential, and trash collection sites are officially closed, anyway. But it's the first time I can see these yard flowers grow so tall. Nature can't be stopped.








#5
And I am trying to keep my succulents alive and well. My anxiety, and my desire to be in control of something natural, small and beautiful, wants them to grow faster; I give them water, more water; water that they can't take anymore. Nature can't be spurred, either. Nature won't take my love, just as my disdain won't make a difference to it - it just is.






#6
This will be it. This will be it for quite a long time. March travel for my Houston exhibition was canceled and summer vacation will not take place. But most importantly, the new normal will cancel our social bodily experience. Will change public priorities: seeing other human beings in the flesh is fine in stores, unacceptable in museums; food is important, art is not. But the lessons of the crisis are lessons coming from art and words, not just physical survival.

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