A man lying in a bed of plants in Peru

Glimpses of grief and resilience, captured over an unforgettable year

“The pandemic stripped away a lot of fears and amplified my desire to connect with others.” One year into COVID-19, photographers reflect on their own images.

The Shipibo-Konibo Indigenous people from Peruvian rainforest in the Amazon use healing plants as a way to connect with nature. Their work with traditional plant-based medicine is under threat amid the coronavirus pandemic. "I accompanied the Shipibo-Konibo people in their quest to survive this violent disease...I saw them take refuge in their origin, in their forest. And I felt myself in refuge with them," said photographer Florence Goupil.
Photograph by Florence Goupil
ByTucker C. Toole
March 11, 2021
13 min read

It was a moment we will never forget. Professional sporting events were canceled, colleges sent students home, the lights went out on Broadway, offices closed their doors.  Last March, the world went on lockdown as COVID-19 swept across the globe.

The projected toll was then unimaginable. Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic one year ago, more than 118 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded worldwide and more than 2.6 million people have lost their lives. The United States leads the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths: More than 29 million people have contracted the virus and more than 520,000 have died.

It was a year that tested our humanity. Hospitals were overwhelmed. Funeral homes raced to keep up. Millions lost jobs.  Acute hunger increased dramatically. Family members stayed away from each other.

During the pandemic, the National Geographic Society launched an emergency fund to support journalists covering COVID-19. From resilience to reconnection, photographers captured impactful moments of people around the world, dealing with the pandemic in different ways. We asked some of the grant recipients to choose the image that most resonated with them and share their reflections.

Rita Harper photographed geriatric nurse Breonna Leon in Atlanta, Georgia, who has cared for many COVID-19 patients who passed away. Harper says she wanted to document how urban communities have been affected due to reduced resources, pre-existing conditions, and limited access to care.

Photographer Gab Mejia captured wildlife rangers in the Philippines bidding their last farewell to the lone captive-bred tamaraw on the planet. There are an estimated 500 tamaraw, the world’s rarest buffalo species, left in the wild. Lockdowns and economic hardships have impeded wildlife conservation efforts as each loss brings the species closer to extinction.

“It was a traumatic experience to witness the death and corpse of the critically endangered tamaraw,” Mejia said. “More so, the hardships that the pandemic has brought on the wildlife rangers, who have dedicated their lives in saving this rare species in the Philippines. The stringent lockdowns made it so much more difficult to document in wildlife conservation sites due to the fear brought by COVID-19.”

Though some are hopeful that the struggles of the pandemic may be nearing an end, for most—particularly the relatives and friends of those who have died—this devastating year will forever impact our lives.

Nurses tend to a newborn baby during Coronavirus
The COVID-19 pandemic arrived early in the remote Russian region of Dagestan, which has an obsolete medical system. The local nurses thought, at first, that the illness was the yearly flu but once villagers started dying and falling sick in large numbers, they didn’t understand what was happening, nor how to treat it, nor were they provided with any medical equipment and medicine. "I was particularly saddened to see sick pregnant women and young children suffering COVID-19 symptoms, being surrounded by cosmonaut-looking medical staff," Nanna Heitmann said.
Photograph by Nanna Heitmann
a motther teaches her daughter at home in Armenia
Photographer Anush Babajanyan hugs her daughter Ella when she has trouble finishing her virtual math work in Armenia. “I also could not overlook the fact that as a family, my children and I were struggling too, trying to teach and learn, understanding how to go through the day without leaving home, trying to keep life balanced, trying,” Babajanyan said.
Photograph by Anush Babajanyan
Bethany Mollenkof, who was pregnant at the time of the U.S. lockdown, felt bringing a child into the world during that moment was powerful. “To grow a life in such dark times of death felt powerful and I wanted to document it for my daughter,” Mollenkof said.
Photograph by Bethany Mollenkof
A wildlife ranger tends to an animal i the Philippines
Wildlife rangers bid their last farewell to the last captive-bred tamaraw, a Philippine icon and national land mammal. The pandemic has left wildlife rangers and environmental defenders in the Philippines in peril.
Photograph by Gab Mejia
A man ice fishes in Northwest Territories, Canada
Amos Scott catches his breath after pulling fish from an ice fishing hole in temperatures below minus-30 degrees Celsius on Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. Since the pandemic, Indigenous elders in the Northwest Territories are encouraging residents to "be on the land" as a physical distancing measure to protect their communities and as a way to reconnect with nature and traditional Indigenous lifestyles.
Photograph by Pat Kane
The Paraná River seen from aboove
The Paraná River in Argentina is facing the largest decline in its history, which is affecting the biodiversity of the wetlands in that area. "I have been working for several months on the 'Rio Adentro' project, documenting the situation of this important ecosystem through different families that have learned to adapt to the changes imposed by the pandemic, but also to the worst environmental transformation of their territory," said Sebastián López Brach.
Photograph by Sebastián López Brach
Bread loves arranged in a grid
Brazilian documentary photographer Gabriela Portilho, who usually documents life outside, was forced to document from home during the COVID-19 shutdown in Brazil. Portilho photographed bread under different lights, creating a metaphor with the lunar cycles and the passage of time. "In that limitation, I saw the opportunity to turn my eyes to my own life," she says, "and somehow talk about the changes in eating habits that affected not only me but thousands of people, who luckily had food at home during that time."
Photograph by Gabriela Portilho
Activists in Johannesburg distributed organic vegetables and gardening materials to hundreds of vulnerable households to fight the growing food insecurity caused by the lockdown. "As a mother, this pandemic got me concerned about the well-being, the safety and the future of my child," said Miora Rajaonary.
Photograph by Miora Rajaonary
A nurse in Atlanta puts a mask on
Breonna Leon, a geriatric nurse in Atlanta, has dealt with being an essential healthcare worker during the pandemic and seeing many of her patients pass from COVID-19. She believes Black Americans are dying at higher rates, due to issues dealing with systemic racism in healthcare, pre-existing conditions, and limited resources and access to care. Photographing workers like Leon and local neighborhoods, "I had an intimate look at how food deserts are plaguing Black communities in Atlanta," said photographer Rita Harper.
Photograph by Rita Harper
a father ad daughter
Photographer Esther Ruth Mbabazi honors the life of her father, who passed away in 2008. "During the pandemic, I had a lot of time to look inwards, to sit with the quiet and be present," she says. "I missed my father. I missed him a lot. This is my way of preserving the memories I have of him."
Photograph by Esther Ruth Mbabazi
A Coca-Cola bottle sits on a table on a cruise ship in Greece
A sticker advising passengers to socially distance marks the middle of the table on a Greek cruise off the island of Santorini. "Normally, the Italian cruise guide told me, each tour would be fully booked and the cruise ship crowded but today, as had become the new normal this summer, there were just about 30 people on the boat and I could make myself a quiet working corner at one of the tables indoors," photographer Loulou d'Aki said.
Photograph by Loulou d'Aki
Youssef has taken over an old Bedouin tradition to grow and care for a family garden. This tradition had disappeared in Egypt until it was revived during the pandemic.
Photograph by Rehab Eldalil
a teacher with a student in the Philippines
Lying comfortably in the makeshift sanctuary of a mobile school for Indigenous youth in the Philippines, a teacher shares a tender, motherly moment with one of her female students who has difficulty sleeping at night. "It has been emotionally challenging to document a marginalized community that has already been facing humanitarian crises prior to COVID-19. It took me months to recover from witnessing and hearing the struggle of their confinement after my week-long immersion with the community," said photographer Pau Villanueva.
Photograph by Pau Villanueva
Monica styles her hair before she hits the streets for busking in Indonesia. During the pandemic, many transgender women, who mostly work in the sex, commercial, and beauty sectors, have had limited options. When the Indonesian government implemented social distancing, most business sectors were not allowed to operate, including spas and beauty salons.
Photograph by Yoppy Pieter
Delores Jetton, a bath aide in the U.S., primarily cares for those at the end of life. Patients receive compassionate and meditative touch with her care. "To watch Delores work is to watch the best of humanity embodied in an earthly being," says photographer Lynn Johnson.
Photograph by Lynn Johnson
An essential worker sanitizes a bus inn Kibera
A volunteer disinfects a public bus in Kibera, Kenya, where public transit is essential for nearly all of the residents. “Public transport is a lifeline for most Kibera residents who want to move around in and within the city," says photographer Brian Otieno. "While we were all being asked to stay at home, some went out of their way to serve and protect their communities.”
Photograph by Brian Otieno
A nurse writes her name on her "powdered air purifying respirator" hood
Rosem Morton is an essential healthcare worker as well as a photographer. In this self-portrait, she writes her name on her PAPR hood—a powered air purifying respirator—in March 2020. "This very same hood has lived in my locker for the past year. The only difference is, my name, rewritten many times over, has faded with all the wiping and reuse it has withstood. It reminds me of what we continue to endure a year later."
Photograph by Rosem Morton
migrants trying to get to Europe stranded in Bosnia
A group of migrants and refugees pass through Bosnia on foot. "Today Bosnia became an unlikely and unfortunate gatekeeper of the European Union," notes photographer Ziyah Gafic, who was once a refugee himself. "Tens of thousands of people on the move are passing through Bosnia on their way to a better tomorrow. Most of the time they are in hostile territory, in the countries that don't want them. At the same time they all share the same unbreakable hope that whenever they reach their final destination their life will be better."
Photograph by Ziyah Gafic, VII; Supported in part by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting
A transgender woman awaits asylum in Mexico
Kataleya Nativi Baca, a transgender migrant from Honduras waiting to seek asylum at the U.S. border, finds a moment of joy in a dark year. COVID-19 hit just as she was preparing to be summoned to present her case. In March 2020, the U.S./Mexico border closed indefinitely to immigrants, "hurtling her life into a downward spiral of depression and instability with employment, living situations, and safety,” says photographer Danielle Villasana.
Photograph by Danielle Villasana
A resident of Manila, in the Philippines, stands outside her tent on Smokey Mountain, a former dumpsite. On the eve of the government-imposed COVID-19 lockdown, she was stabbed by her husband and nearly died from excessive bleeding. "While gender-based violence can happen to anyone, those living in poverty are often the most vulnerable," says photographer Bernice Beltran. "This particular story explores how the lack of a gender dimension in the government-led COVID-19 response affected the victims of domestic violence in the Philippines."
Photograph by Bernice Beltran
During the pandemic, domestic violence has increased. "This picture reminds me that domestic violence doesn't start with bruises on the skin, domestic violence begins with words and takes many forms," says photographer Irina Unruh.
Photograph by Irina Unruh


This work was supported by the National Geographic Society's COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists.

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