In just a few months, COVID-19 has transformed the lives of people around the world, as well as how they experience the built environment. But measuring such rapid shifts in our social, political, and economic landscape poses its own difficulty. In the National Building Museum’s (NBM) upcoming virtual exhibition, “Documenting Crossroads: The New Normal,” photographer Camilo José Vergara tracks these changes in New York City, highlighting the ways that COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted the lives of minority families and communities of color.
Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum
Featuring 71 images, Vergara’s own observations, and an essay from Elihu Rubin, an associate professor at Yale University’s School of Architecture and in American Studies, the online-only exhibition aims to reveal how urban life for these communities has been “altered during these last few months, from space adaptations for economic survival to behavioral changes as people seek to avoid becoming ill,” according to an NBM press release.
Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum
“Documenting Crossroads: The New Normal,” is the second virtual exhibition of Vergara’s work documenting the social impacts of COVID-19 that the NBM has launched since it closed in March because of the pandemic, just one day before its scheduled reopening following renovations to the museum’s great hall. Vergara’s first exhibition, “Documenting Crossroads: The Coronavirus in Poor, Minority Communities,” was published online in April.
Viewers can experience the exhibition on the NBM’s website.
Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum
Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum