New York Responds: The First Six Months

My photograph of masks drying over my kitchen sink leads off the section of the exhibit called, appropriately enough, Masks,

By the middle of March, an unfamiliar acronym—PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)—had entered into the popular vernacular. Seemingly overnight, selling and wearing masks became ubiquitous in New York. On April 17, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring mask-wearing in public wherever social distancing was impossible. For many, wearing a mask outdoors became an opportunity for creativity and personal expression—whether in the form of levity or as a message of protest.

 For more information about the exhibit and to visit the photographs on line go to https://www.mcny.org/nyresponds/images