We recently asked New York readers to share scenes from their daily lives during the coronavirus pandemic for a new open-ended series we hope will help all of us see beyond our limited perspectives amid this unprecedented and often isolating experience. Here is another collection of your images. We hope you will continue to share your own scenes with us by emailing them to scenes@nymag.com. Previous installments can be seen here, here, and here.
Regarding the above photo, reader Dan captions: “I’m an Olympic fencing coach who runs the Brooklyn Bridge Fencing Club in Dumbo. Even though Olympic qualification and the Olympic Games have been postponed (I coach an athlete that is almost qualified for Tokyo), I still get to give our 8-year-old daughter fencing lessons.”
“This scene I had to capture from my car with my iPhone on maximum zoom. It made me cry so hard. I live next door to a nursing home and I suppose this is a son visiting his old mother. The picture is taken in the Faroe Islands, a tiny country in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. At first, we were a really scary first place on the list of cases per capita. Now we’re on top of the list of testing per capita, and next week we’re slowly opening again because we’ve got such a good hold of the situation. Unthinkable just weeks ago. Hold on. There is hope. Much love your way!”
“I’ve started running a lot more now and take these pictures when I’m out on a run in the evening or early morning.”
“As a means of coping with my anxiety/depression, I have been taking short walks around my neighborhood, allowing me to still feel connected to this city even in times of social distancing. Particularly in this area, there are a lot of young working people and mid-/lower-income families, and people are finding every way they can to express themselves. I’ve noticed an influx of graffiti and street art in addition to the rising number of compassionate notes left for service workers/store owners/the general public. It’s a truly terrifying time, but I know New York will come out of this together because of the thing that makes this city so special in the first place: New Yorkers.”
“Although it’s not easy being in the epicenter, my dog Henrietta is living her best life.”
“Recently, I had to walk 20 blocks to get a notary signature (New York rents driving us out, am I right?) Having not gotten out of the house for over a month, this was, I won’t lie, extremely exciting. As I walked all those streets and avenues, I crossed a scarce number of people — the paranoids, who take a step back when the wind makes you sniff; the carefree — who are just happy they can enjoy the rare emptiness; and the essentials — without whom we’d truly and honestly be lost. But there was one common thing behind all those masks: A sense of unity, subtle nods indicating we’ll get through this together, as long as it takes. When I got back to the house, a warm, comforting feeling took over me, as though I’d finally reached home. This little walk changed a lot for me. That day on an abandoned New York street, overwhelmed and smiling, a man reading his daily paper yelled out to me, ‘Ironic how we can breathe again, isn’t it?’”
“I just saw the carrot in the first collection of scenes. Thank you for doing this. In community and with great love for our beautiful, broken city of reverence, and because laughing is good medicine, the attached portrait of my sunchoke inspired this 50-second puppet sketch:”
You can view the rest of the series here. We’ll publish the next collection soon and hope you’ll keep the submissions coming — you can send them in by emailing scenes@nymag.com.
