Adapting to a Pandemic


A series of images exploring how artists and creatives in NYC were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. My work asks questions about acceptance, resilience, hope, how to keep creating when it feels like the world is telling you to give up — questions that, as an independent artist myself, reflected my own personal experience of the pandemic that I’m still grappling with today.To me, these images demonstrate the power of personal expression, and in taking control of one’s creative freedoms — and just how much resilience is possible in the human condition.



Wonza Johnson, Actor, was in the cast of the Hamilton US National tour. When the pandemic hit, he could no longer perform and resorted to working front desk jobs and teaching virtually at his old high school in South Carolina to make rent.  He rented practice studios to keep up his dance skills and pivoted his creative outputs to working on self-filmed audition tapes and writing his own TV pilot. He recently landed a role in an episode of Blue Bloods.





Chris Williams, Trumpeter, moved from LA to NYC at the beginning of the pandemic and transitioned from live performances to releasing his first non-trumpet solo album from his basement studio in response to the death of George Floyd.




 

Alexis Badiyi, Freelance Stylist, lost her client work at the beginning of the pandemic and started selling hand-sewn masks under the name JOON from a collection of headstock fabric and donating a percentage of the proceeds to a different charity each month.




Nakaya, Independent Music Artist, lost her job working in music management during lockdown in 2020 but took it as a sign to go fully freelance. She spent her time on self-care, re-centering her artistic process, and writing and working on her self-recorded EP.





Sonya Belaya, Pianist







INSTAGRAM @katherinepekala / EMAIL katherinepekala@gmail.com