"The Great Empty - Photographs by The New York Times" is an exhibition that truly delivers the poignancy of our current times. Inspired by the famous photo exhibition during the 1950s of "The Family of A Man" in respect of the calamities of the World War, this new exhibition undertaken by photographers at NY Times is mesmerizing and conveys bonds of humanity that surpass human-made boundaries of nations and politics.
The exhibition brings us photos from across the world of bustling, tourist-centered attractions that have never stopped humming, now abandoned, isolated in the wake of the global pandemic that has seized us all. Michael Kimmelman, who offers an introduction to this exhibition, remarks, "Their present emptiness, a public health necessity, can conjure up dystopia, not progress, but, promisingly, it also suggests that, by heeding the experts and staying apart, we have not yet lost the capacity to come together for the common good. Covid-19 doesn’t vote along party lines, after all. These images are haunted and haunting, like stills from movies about plagues and the apocalypse, but in some ways they are hopeful."
"They also remind us that beauty requires human interaction."
"I don’t mean that buildings and fairgrounds and railway stations and temples can’t look eerily beautiful empty. Some of these sites, like many of these photographs, are works of art. I mean that empty buildings, squares and beaches are what art history textbooks, boutique hotel advertisements and glossy shelter and travel magazines tend to traffic in. Their emptiness trumpets an existence mostly divorced from human habitation and the messy thrum of daily life. They imagine an experience more akin to the wonder of bygone explorers coming upon the remains of a lost civilization."
"They evoke the romance of ruins."
"Beauty entails something else. It is something we bestow."
"It will be the moment we return."
The photos in the exhibition are:
1. London, United Kingdom: Andrew Testa for The New York Times
2. Munich, Germany: Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times
3. Moscow, Russia: Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
4. Beijing, China: Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
5. Caracas, Venezuela: Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
6. Los Angeles, United States of America: Philip Cheung for The New York Times
7. Barcelona, Spain: Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
8. New Jersey, United States of America: Bryan Anselm for The New York Times
9. Srinagar, India: Atul Loke for The New York Times
10. Bangkok, Thailand: Amanda Mustard for The New York Times
11. Berlin, Germany: Emile Ducke for The New York Times
12. New Delhi, India: Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times
13. Rome, Italy: Alessandro Penso for The New York Times
14. Washington, United States of America: Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
15. Tokyo, Japan: Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times
16. Seoul, South Korea: Woohae Cho for The New York Times
17. Seattle, United States of America: Grant Hindsley for The New York Times
18. Milan, Italy: Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
19. San Francisco, United States of America: Rozette Rago for The New York Times
20. Rawalpindi, Pakistan: Saiyna Bashir for The New York Times
21. New York, United States of America: Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
22. Yangon, Myanmar: Minzayar Oo for The New York Times
23. São Paulo, Brazil: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
24. Siem Reap, Cambodia: Adam Dean for The New York Times
25. Sydney, Australia: Matthew Abbott for The New York Times
26. Hong Kong, China: Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
27. Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times
28. Paris, France: The view is still there, the viewers far less so.
29. Bogotá, Colombia: Federico Rios for The New York Times
30. Tehran, Iran: Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
