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The chaotic headlines, broken records, and remarkable strength that defined 2021
The year began with vaccines and optimism. But a new Covid-19 wave, violent conflicts, and the climate crisis made 2021 one more year we'd need resilience to survive.
Sept. 17-19 | Washington, D.C.
Planted on parkland around the Washington Monument, the small white flags were both tributes to and symbols of each life lost to COVID-19 in the United States. Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg devised the installation to express the enormity of the national death toll—and also the pain of individual deaths, as mourners decorated flags with loved ones’ names and photos. During the roughly three weeks that the installation was in place, the U.S. passed a grim milestone: 700,000 COVID fatalities. To create this composite image, Stephen Wilkes took hundreds of photos from the same vantage point during 30 hours spanning three days. He then merged select photos into this single scene. Learn more about Wilkes’s “Day to Night” technique in the story below.
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