The Covid & Faith Project

Since its inception in January of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed almost every aspect of our lives, from the relatively mild inconveniences of wearing a mask to ending the lives of people we love. It has destroyed dreams, businesses, jobs, families; disrupted the simplest and most profound acts of community; put both the health and education of our children at risk; kept people from worshiping, singing, gathering, making love. It has etched in our consciousness indelible images, from temporary morgues in Queens, New York to the smoke of funeral pyres in New Delhi.  Despite vaccines, it does not appear to be going anywhere.

Evidence suggests that Covid is affecting the religious faith of people who profess to have it. According to a survey done by the Pew Research Center in the summer of 2020, about 3 in 10 respondents in the U.S.--28%--said they thought their faith was stronger because of the pandemic.  About two-thirds of respondents in the United States indicated their faith had not changed much, and 4% were not afraid to admit it got weaker.

If art speaks about and to the age in which it is made, then it needs to be, at least in part, about what we are living through now. The questions that occur to us are how and why? How did people’s faith get stronger, or weaker? What happened to them that transformed their faith, for better or worse? And if their faith did not change much, how could it not have? The pandemic has changed everything.  Why would it not change what we believe in or, alternatively, what we no longer do?

In COVID and Faith, our goal is to explore in some depth the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed individual’s religious faith and/or spiritual practice and beliefs.

This exploration combines two aspects of each individual’s experience.  The first is each person’s verbal reflection on the experience, through a one-to-one interview.  The second is a photographic portrait of the speaker, in a setting chosen by the speaker.   In collaboration with the participants, we will shape these reflections into a narrative that will travel with the photograph wherever it is displayed.

The primary artifact of COVID and Faith will be a photobook in which portraits of the participants and the text derived from their interviews will be displayed on facing pages. In addition, the project will have a webpage and a presence on social media to promote it. On the webpage, some of the photographs and narrative text will be displayed, along with information and news about the project and contact information for those who might want to participate. If there is sufficient interest, some of the photos and text will also be available for display in a gallery setting.