International photojournalist Alison Wright turns her lens on NYC during the pandemic.

Alison Wright is a documentary photographer, a National Geographic Traveler of the Year, a recipient of the Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography, and the author of multiple books, including Face to Face: Portraits of the Human Spirit, Human Tribe, The Dalai Lama: A Simple Monk, and the memoir Learning to Breathe: One Woman’s Journey of Spirit and Survival.

The exhibit Alison Wright: Grit and Grace, Women at Work was set to open at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on March 14, along with seven other new exhibits. An afternoon opening reception at the Museum and an evening talk by Wright at Next Stage Arts Project were the first BMAC events to be cancelled due to the pandemic. The Museum closed to the public a few days later and remains shuttered as of May 18. Those eight exhibits have been extended through October 12, and we are hopeful that we will be able to share them with you in person before then.

In the meantime, BMAC spoke with Wright about her newest body of work, “New York City in the Time of Coronavirus: Life Interrupted,” which documents the impact of Covid-19 on Wright’s adopted hometown through photographs and stories. Wright gave us permission to share a few of her images here.

Wright explains the project:

As a documentary photographer, I am used to a constant schedule of global travel for my work. Our lives, the world over, have been interrupted by this pandemic. My travel wings have been clipped for now. I am used to covering global disasters, changing cultures, and issues concerning the human condition all over the world. Now that a crisis has come to my own city, I feel compelled to document it. I do so well-protected and from a safe social distance. The distance is a departure from how I usually work, but finding some story or connection with those whom I meet has been a universal theme throughout my photography projects around the world. This photo journal is simply my own musings on the people and places I encounter on my daily walks.

It is a project born first out of curiosity of circumstance, then out of gratitude to all the essential workers, and always out of love for a city that has worked so hard together to keep each other safe. As a collective humanity, we mourn the world we once knew, and together we must navigate the new life we create as we move forward. Capturing these small moments in time feels like I’m documenting a larger moment in history.

My BMAC exhibition, Grit and Grace, Women at Work, focuses on women working in global communities. It’s been an unexpected evolution that this lockdown has led me to focus on an under-represented community of laborers in our own society: essential workers who keep our society humming along during this pandemic. These are the people many of us once took for granted—garbage collectors, electrical technicians, transit drivers, delivery people, doormen, postal workers, and cashiers, not to mention the brave first responders and frontline workers, such as firefighters, police, doctors, and nurses. These are our unsung heroes.

—Alison Wright
New York City, May 2020

Here are a few images from “New York City in the Time of Coronavirus: Life Interrupted,” including excerpts from Wright’s detailed narrative captions:

A portrait of Dr. Khan, to complement the family photo I posted yesterday. I was first struck by her graceful poise and unassuming beauty, even half-hidden by a facemask and shawl. And the light was delicious. She sat with her sweet family at Riverside Park, lined up tightly ensconced in their protective facemasks, enjoying the gorgeous setting of the sun. Read more…

There are a number of superheroes showing their true colors during this pandemic, but this young superman wears it particularly well. Read more...

Meet Zack. He’s one of our essential workers on the frontlines for the electric company. He remains working to keep our power humming during this lock down so that we can have our lights, charge our devices, cook, watch TV, binge Netflix, work, learn, and have Zoom parties on our computers. Read more…

“Hey New Yorkers, just wear the frigging face mask!” Governor Cuomo just opened a contest for ads to help get the message across, that’s my submission. Let’s see if I win. Read more…

American heroes. The Javitz Convention Center, reconfigured to a 2500 bed field hospital to treat coronavirus patients, clapped out its last patient this week and is wrapping up. Hundreds of military medics are packing up and heading back home, like Colonel Brady from Texas. Read more...

Explore more of Wright’s work:

View more images from Wright’s ongoing series “New York City in the Time of Coronavirus: Life Interrupted.” You can also follow Wright on Instagram @alisonwrightphoto and @womenatworkproject.

Attend “Grit and Grace: The Empowerment of Women at Work in Global Communities,” Wright’s rescheduled talk, now taking place online on Thursday, June 25, at 7:30 p.m., via Zoom (link).

View an online gallery of selected images from Grit and Grace, Women at Work.

Items related to this exhibit are available in BMAC’s online gift shop.