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How COVID and Black Lives Matter Converged

A woman outraged by the killing of George Floyd speaks to a crowd and blocks a police officer’s vehicle in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 26, 2020.

2020 was the year a once-in-a-generation global pandemic clashed with a global call for racial equality. 

In her excellent new book, Through the Lens: The Pandemic and Black Lives Matter, NYU professor Lauren Walsh attempts to understand the historic year through the vantage point of the photojournalists that were on the frontlines capturing a multitude of unprecedented events. Walsh records the emotional toll that came with “covering death, destruction, and endemic racism.” 

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“The historic Black Lives Matter protests were the largest demonstrations in US history and reverberated globally,” Walsh says. 

“The devastating Covid-19 pandemic, a once-in-a-century disaster, has impacted the entire world. And both situations collided in 2020, forcing photographers into a terrain defined by new ethical, technological, and safety concerns, as well as innovative attacks on press freedom.”

Through the Lens features images that range from lockdowns in Shanghai and Wuhan, to protests in Minnesota and Portland. 

Her work, Walsh adds, aims to uncover the “ethical dilemmas and the risks and challenges visual journalists encounter to bring us the news in pictures.”

Hundreds of members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn attend a funeral for a rabbi who died from the coronavirus, April 5, 2020, New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Hundreds of members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn attend a funeral for a rabbi who died from the coronavirus, April 5, 2020, New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Dogs wear masks at a main shopping area, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in downtown Shanghai, China, February 16, 2020.Photo by Aly Song/Reuters
Dogs wear masks at a main shopping area, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in downtown Shanghai, China, February 16, 2020. Photo by Aly Song/Reuters
A woman wearing a face mask slips through barriers that have been set up to block off buildings and their residents, Wuhan, China, March 29, 2020. Photo by Aly Song/Reuters
A woman wearing a face mask slips through barriers that have been set up to block off buildings and their residents, Wuhan, China, March 29, 2020. Photo by Aly Song/Reuters
Protesters march down University Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, September 23, 2020. Photo: Patience Zalanga
Protesters march down University Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, September 23, 2020. Photo: Patience Zalanga
Federal police clash with protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland, as the city experiences a night of unrest. At this point, protesters had faced off in violent clashes with the Portland Police Bureau and federal police for over fifty-five straight nights. July 25, 2020.Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Federal police clash with protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland, as the city experiences a night of unrest. At this point, protesters had faced off in violent clashes with the Portland Police Bureau and federal police for over fifty-five straight nights. July 25, 2020. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A new mural honoring “Big Floyd” covers the back wall of Scott Food Mart near Cuney Homes, the oldest public housing project in Houston, Texas, June 9, 2020. Other community members who have died, mostly from street violence, are also memorialized on the corner store’s walls. Photo by Joshua Lott/Washington Post
A new mural honoring “Big Floyd” covers the back wall of Scott Food Mart near Cuney Homes, the oldest public housing project in Houston, Texas, June 9, 2020. Other community members who have died, mostly from street violence, are also memorialized on the corner store’s walls. Photo by Joshua Lott/Washington Post
Nurses and respiratory specialists treat coronavirus patients, with a doctor phoning in, at El Centro Regional Medical Center in El Centro, California, May 24, 2020. Photo by Melina Mara/Washington Post
Nurses and respiratory specialists treat coronavirus patients, with a doctor phoning in, at El Centro Regional Medical Center in El Centro, California, May 24, 2020. Photo by Melina Mara/Washington Post
Healthcare workers, including nurses and paramedics, respond to the 7:00 p.m. clap by firefighters and New Yorkers honoring them, NYU Langone Hospital, New York City, April 4, 2020. Photo: Nina Berman
Healthcare workers, including nurses and paramedics, respond to the 7:00 p.m. clap by firefighters and New Yorkers honoring them, NYU Langone Hospital, New York City, April 4, 2020. Photo: Nina Berman
Family members weep during the burial of Manuela Chavez, who died from symptoms related to the coronavirus at the age of eighty-eight, in the Shipibo Indigenous community of Pucallpa, in Peru’s Ucayali region, August 31, 2020.Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP
Family members weep during the burial of Manuela Chavez, who died from symptoms related to the coronavirus at the age of eighty-eight, in the Shipibo Indigenous community of Pucallpa, in Peru’s Ucayali region, August 31, 2020. Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP