Photo Book Series To Serve As Historic Marker In Pandemic
It is vital we expand this project as we face the unknown scope that 20,000+ New Yorkers are continuing to die. “The concept for Six Feet stemmed from searching for ways to volunteer safely during the pandemic, a way for me to use my talent for a good purpose.” Heather Cullum envisions her project as a love letter to the book Here is New York, parallel to the COVID-19 crisis compared to 9/11. Without limiting the project to one book and opening it up to a series, she can continue to capture those who survived and who carry on being affected.
Six Feet, available for purchase online, is dedicated to Heather’s father, Joseph Cullum, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2016. With collective proceeds being donated to the ALS Association, Greater New York Chapter, serving people with ALS and their caregivers in times of crisis. Originating from a poster designed for socially distant portraits in a two block radius of her neighborhood in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the project expanded in a short time to all of the surrounding New York boroughs. In order to meet the scale of the moment we are in, you will see a mother holding her child whom she can’t take to any social interactions during this fundamental learning time in their life. They could be a foreign neighbor, a married family member, a struggling friend, making the magnitude so relatable, it hits close to home. For many, Heather was the first person they had seen face to face (or shall we say mask to mask) in months since the lockdown. She organized weekly schedules, with multiple shoots per day, recommending subjects wear masks and gloves if they had access to them and that their clothing be reflective of what they were wearing in isolation.
“Creatively, I have been more active and energetically ready to take a leap during the quarantine than I have been in months when I was working full time.” This is the first phase of a project that can be an undying tribute, based on the defense of how we predict what the world will look like next week, let alone next year.