Corona Diaries by Marzena Skubatz

German photographer Marzena Skubatz lives and works in Germany and Iceland. Particularly interested in places’ identity and their meaning: outdoor and indoor landscapes and the « in between » space. From this research, she is naturally interested in remote and inaccessible spaces. She has decided to go to the North, where she takes pictures of people living in very distant places. By photographing their intimate life and their resistance, she questions the notion of “home”. Committed, it highlights these communities, particularly when facing ecological upheavals.

This approach is found in the last series she publishes, Corona Diaries. In the sanitary conditions and the current modifications of the habits of life of many countries in the world, Marzena delivers her testimony of her home, in Neukölln, densest district of Berlin. Here are her observations recorded on site like a diary during the pandemic.

During COVID 19  Marzena have put herself in self Isolation and only leave her apartement once a day for a five minute walk to gasp some fresh air and document the current situation in her neighborhood in Berlin. This is her ongoing diary.
– I am waiting, just waiting here you know…
– What are you waiting for?
– For a guy who said he will bring me a bucket of ketchup and another one with yoghurt sauce
– A whole bucket of each?
– Yes. I hope he comes…I am really scared you know. I´ve never been so scared before. We don´t know what will happen next and we can`t do anything. Just wait

– The contradiction between the beauty of the blossoming spring and the tragic of the pandemic is somehow hard to process.

– The playground is closed, it is not allowed anymore to play there. But we can climb over the fence
– Looks quite dangerous to do that.
– Yes, it is quite high but what else can we do? It is sooo boring. Everything is closed or forbidden. We don`t know what to do. There is nothing left to do for us

Marzena Skubatz’s website: www.marzenaskubatz.com
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