The 15 Things Utahns Can't Live Without During a Pandemic
A photo storytelling project from CacheARTS, Utah Public Radio and photographer Maria Ellen Huebner.
Earlier this year, NPR featured the work of Paula Zuccotti, a London-based Argentine anthropologist.
In April 2020, pandemic lockdowns were still relatively fresh and Zuccotti wanted to document this strange time of life. So she snapped a photo of the 15 things she was valuing most during the pandemic. She shared her image on social media, asking others to join in: "What are the 15 things that are helping YOU get through this?" She got more than 1,000 responses coming from 50 different countries, and they are all compiled now in a publicly searchable archive at lockdownessentials.org.
We decided to create a little microcosm of her project here in Utah.
Beginning October 21, 2021 , The 15 Things Utahns Can’t Live Without During a Pandemic will be on display in the foyer of the Ellen Eccles Theatre (43 S. Main St, Logan, UT 84321).
The images in this exhibit come from the students in Maria Ellen Huebner’s Utah State University Photography 1 class, and we invite you to view the many fascinating photographs while the exhibit is up.
We are also inviting and asking YOU for your help in putting together a second exhibit in December featuring community images all across the state. To submit your own “15 Things” image, email it to katie.swain@usu.edu or info@cachearts.org and it may be featured in our exhibition during the Logan Gallery Walkon December 3, 2021.
Deadline for submissions is Tuesday, November 23, 2021. *Late submissions will be accepted after that date, but are less likely to be included in the Gallery Walk exhibit.
We hope that you find healing, catharsis and connection through this project. We’ve all lived through so much in these last 18 months, adapting and processing at a rapid rate. It’s been exhausting and numbing in many ways. This project is an opportunity to pause and reflect. To think back and fully embrace the moments we’ve all lived through, and reflect on what we truly valued. In creating and sharing these images we hope to find the similarities between our experiences, and that then we can feel the strength of community in telling our stories of the 15 things we couldn’t live without during a pandemic.
For more information about this project, listen to our Access Utah episode here.
