Exploring the City of Light During a Year Without Light
When pandemonium came to Paris in 2020, I documented the chaos in a photography zine
If you’re going to do a gap year, don’t do it during a pandemic.
That’s a lesson I would have heeded had I known the world was going to fall apart. But at the time, I had no inkling of just how crazy everything would get.
It had been my dream to come to France. And so, at the start of March 2020, I arrived fresh-faced in the French capital.
Around ten days later, the country went into lockdown.
As the crisis raged, I found myself going stir-crazy inside. Imagine moving across oceans to the other side of the world, only to find yourself staring at the ceiling for one-third of the year.
To add insult to injury, New Zealand, the home I had left behind, became one of the few countries removed from Covid’s clutches, meaning that I had arguably traded the safety of home for ennui and instability outside it.
Of course, none of this was planned. But as I had no say in the circumstances, I realised I just had to make the most of them — and hope the virus would grant me mercy.
