In “Hit Hard By COVID-19, Black Americans Share Their Grief,” photographer Andrea Ellen Reed combines interviews and personal testimonies with documentary photography to convey the multifaceted impact of COVID-19 on Black Americans in the Midwest. The storytelling centers on oral histories and firsthand accounts that reveal the disproportionate mortality rate and systemic racial inequities intensified by the pandemic. Visual imagery complements these narratives, providing an affective dimension that underscores the personal and communal grief experienced. This multimodal narrative foregrounds the intersection of racial marginalization and public health crisis through both language and image, revealing how Black Americans navigated loss amid entrenched systemic racism.
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Image Captions:
Image 1. A photo of Keith Ellison, the Attorney General of Minnesota, who lost his father Clida Martinez Ellison during the COVID-19 pandemic. From Andrea Ellen Reed, “Hit Hard By COVID-19,” TIME, 13 June 2022.Image 2. A photo of Akeya Watley, who lost her veteran father without any opportunity to say goodbye to him, in front of a cemetery. From Andrea Ellen Reed, “Hit Hard By COVID-19,” TIME, 13 June 2022.
Image 3. Sokonie S. Reed mourns the loss of her mother, Enid Z. Freeman, a frontline nurse who died on 9 May 2020, at only 54 years old. From Andrea Ellen Reed, “Hit Hard By COVID-19,” TIME, 13 June 2022.
Citation: Shah, Simmone, photography by Andrea Ellen Reed. “Hit Hard By COVID-19, Black Americans Share Their Grief.” TIME, 13 June 2022, bit.ly/4e041yG. NON-FICTION, JOURNALISTIC, [MARCH 2021 – JUNE 2021] | US. kh/jb/ig
Source Type: Life Writing
Country: US
Date: 01-Mar-2021
Keywords: Black American COVID-19 Experience, Death and Grief, Marginalized Communities, and Systemic Racism