Day 217 of my 2015 series went to Pedro Ribeiro Simões for “Finally The Expected Photographer Arrived“. He returns with self-titled “Talking“, captured on August 15 of that year using Leica M9. Half-decade later, actively posting to Flickr, which he joined in June 2005, Pedro still shoots with the same rangefinder. Vitals: ISO 640, 1/180 sec, 50mm. Pedro’s moment is the Saint Clair garden, Lisbon, Portugal—the city and country where the economist resides.
The street shot takes the Sunday spot for punchy contrast, vivid colors, and what it represents in 2020: The past. Mask-wearing and “social distancing” drastically change how citizens interact in public. Imagine, for example, six-feet separating each person seated. We won’t see scenes like this one for some time.
Crisis returns. Many localities that had eased “shelter-in-place” restrictions are shutting down their economies once more. SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)—also known as COVID-19—pandemic is resurgent. According to data collected by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, there are 14,290,546 confirmed cases and 602,138 deaths in 188 countries. In the United States: 3,711,464 and 140,119, respectively. For progression comparison, on April 5, 2020, worldwide, there were 1,275,542 identified infections and 69,498 dead. In the USA: 337,620 and 9,647. Quite a difference, eh?
Photo Credit: Pedro Ribeiro Simões