Washington, D.C. Is Full of Surreal Scenes and Strange Normalcy

Weeks after a Trump-inspired insurrection on Capitol Hill left five dead, Washington, D.C. is essentially under military occupation; security requirements and the demands of a pandemic have made Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day perhaps the most surreal in American history. As photographer Pete Voelker made his way around the capital this morning, he saw bizarre scenes in a city that looks like a war zone; he also saw people out and about and celebrating the change of power, who were but for their masks like those you would see at any inauguration.