Sabrina Lee

Think Again
digital photography
8 x 10 in.
$75

“Think Again” is a reflection on how society has been transformed by the pandemic. Parks, which only weeks ago were a welcoming backdrop for families and communities to play and picnic and gather, are now vacant spaces where touch of any kind— touching objects, each other—
is prohibited.

The image of the swing, with its metaphorical arms bound, is a symbol of how we’ve been forced to reject our instinct be hands-on, to gently guide one another, to provide reassurance through contact. The absence of people in the frame, the empty picnic table, echo the current view of our public spaces. And the caution tape serves as a bleak prognostication: we must avoid (and in some cases even abandon) one another, or risk turning our shared world into a shared crime scene.

“Think Again” is a call to consider how we can re-frame our society in a masked, post-pandemic culture, with the 2D nature of the medium reminding us of the critical dimension we may have lost in all this. Will virtual communication fill the void, and if so, what’s the mark it will leave on those coming of age in this climate? For individuals who live alone and rely on society’s collective embrace, is there any escape from isolation? And more broadly, is there a substitute for human touch?

© Sabrina Lee