Witnesses

Please do not take risks. Please follow the rules of your government. Thanks for understanding.

Jenny Yang

Forgotten Songs is a public artwork by Michael Thomas Hill, located in Sydney. This artwork is a memory of birds that once sang in central Sydney before Europeans settled and forced them away by developing urbanity. In my view, those empty cages do not only represents the persecution those birds suffered, but also symbols that many people are trapped by the busy lives so they can't do what they really want to do, just as if their souls were trapped in those cages. Right now Corona crisis has significantly influenced the world and caused so many emptyness in our lives. However think differently: maybe this is also a chance to let people reflect on themselves and their relationships with the world again. Hope we all can live the better lives and release our souls.

Stefan Ehrhard

Viktoriapark Berlin Kreuzberg: Wir wachsen weiter... (we continue to grow …)

Anton Nazaretian

We are here, ok? Thousands, millions, billions, we all live here on our personal piece of space rock. We never think about how many of us here. We usually don't see it rushing through a crowd to get our subway train. How often do we notice other people? I mean, personalities. Crowd is always a mass, but in this mass there is more. There are personalities, that we, well, I never see. So all of a sudden there happened something and all of us got hidden in blocks. And we noticed. There are no people in the streets. But what about personalities, where are they?
What I want to say, is that looking on this picture I see a good metaphora. This street, covered by hanging down lanterns, it may be empty, but it is not. Those lanterns are a mass, but in this mass there are many ones, and each one can be seen. And each one shines. Just like we do, huh?
We are still here, I mean, even if we are closed down to small blocks, we are still humanity. And bless the Internet, we all remain together. And we continue to live, continue to be. Even if streets are empty, our human spirit is still out there in the shine of the billiards of lanterns.

Oliver Feist

Our backyard
Right now I have a lot of time with my kids.  Since the playgrounds in Berlin are generally closed, we often go to our backyard with our children and share shifts with other parents. At some point I noticed this deck chair. It's always been there and I have no idea how it got there. Absurd in a way…

Thorsten Schmidtkord

Düsseldorf Airport is a hub for 25 million tourists and business people from all over the world. But not these days. Only the clattering of the flags on the mast disturbs the morning calm. Otherwise, there is dead silence.

Niklas Weiss

Those who are familiar with Ubud, the heart of Bali, know that south of the monkey forest, cars, scooters and even buses are always jammed. Everyone wants to explore this unusual habitat, which has been maintained by the kings of Ubud from the 14th century onwards. But since a few weeks it has become quiet around the monkeys. When I drove through the forest today on the small alley that leads through it, I noticed that the monkeys have already taken possession of it. Quite naturally they were sitting there on the path outside the fence. And once again I noticed that a fence, if you can climb, is only a symbol. And not even a strong one.

Arie Wubben

It was a bizarre experience to photograph Zürich Main Station on the first COVID-19 Sunday Morning at 9 am. At this time of the day, the main station is full of trains and passengers, who always like to spend their free day in the mountains.
To be honest it gave me the feeling of a river without water, rain without clouds, a black swan and a moment during which life simply stopped. These pictures are unique because I do not think that we will ever see the station this way anymore. If fact, it is a photographic youngtimer without an end.

Volker Retzlaff

Since I always try to find a positive aspect in everything, no matter how bad it is, I really like the worldwide deceleration of everyone and everything. This forces individuals, societies, governments, simply each and everyone to get out of the treadmills of our systems and gives us the opportunity to evaluate our positions on many, many levels. I am pretty sure that our lives won’t be the same "after Corona", but I have hope that humanity can learn a lot of it - people will adjust their positions in their systems and will focus on many virtues which seemed to be unnecessary for a long time.

Victor He

“Corona” is a bizarre but magical word that means a lot to me. It is my favourite beer, still remember those good old college days secretly hoarding the "Corona Extra” with my roommate for the term break parties. It is my favourite bar, my go-to choice for escaping from the Singapore downtown hustle-n-bustle lifestyle. Now “Corona” means Lockdown, Quarantine, Pandemic, Social Distancing, Flatting the Curve... Look at all the new pathetic vocabularies we have learnt for past few weeks. If I have to summarize,  all these words mean only one thing to me - the “Emptiness”. Streets, bars, parks, malls where used to be packed with locals & tourists mixed are now all silent and empty, as if someone pressed the “Pause” button in our society.  But as a glass-half-full guy, I see the bright side - this new “Emptiness” is letting me start noticing those little things I often ignore, start learning to be grateful, and start enjoying life in its simplest form. After everything goes back to normal, I will not take them for granted anymore.

Thomas Rosenthal

During the Easter holidays, tourists and locals usually gather here around lunchtime in a shopping frenzy. Kudamm and Tauentzien resemble teeming ant supply streets, the noblest shops and cosy cafés are overly crowded. In the middle of the commercial heart of the city, however, stands its still most visible wound, which was once most severely maltreated by the World War (staged by a mad dictator). The stump of the hundred-year-old memorial church now stands crammed into the middle of the most modern hotel towers, as if these towers wanted to say: "Get out of the way, get out of here! But now the hotel towers are as deserted hollow as the church tower itself, which at the same time stands there admonishingly and wants to answer: "Never forget - even if we were doing well just a moment ago: it can be completely different at any moment! And so it happened these days...

Eduardo & Marta Mangas

Who could have told us that, used to living in the big cities of Spain, coming and going from people, museums, theatres, schools, universities, department stores and the hustle and bustle of the city, one day we would feel so close to the problems that our country has been suffering for some time, the depopulation of the towns of "Empty Spain": Soria, Talavera, Cuenca, Teruel or Cáceres, with no schools, no inhabitants, no economy. Now we are all part of that Empty Spain. Sometimes life forces you to put your feet on the ground to empathize with those who were invisible to our eyes.

Agnès BENSUSSAN

Before the covid crisis, for me a place of passage on which the gaze is barely cast, at best to look at those who sat there to watch, to wait, to beg or to do nothing.
A place of passage... Staircases that are cursed when time is running out, when the train is about to leave, when every minute counts... and you have to climb them!
A place of passage... Staircases that you don't know when, after a train journey, your gaze is completely absorbed by the overhanging view of Marseille from the esplanade, that the next activity is already calling you... and that you have to hurtle down them!
After the confinement, the ideal setting for a group photo

Niklas Weiss

Whilst in more and more parts of the world society opens again, the heart of Bali remains a wasteland. Coworks go broke, restaurants or hotels start to become troubeled. Local people need food, masks, sanitizer. From way too much crowds it fell into total silence. It makes me wonder if there could be something in between.

Svea Pietschmann

Day

From my series "berlin slows down." April, 2020.
Monday, Wednesday or Sunday, morning or evening – the city has become timeless.
Everything is different, slow, empty and quiet. On my forways through Berlin, the city I have been living in for over 20 years.
Never before have I experienced it like this. Does the city seem abandoned? Or is it taking a break?
I notice that I enjoy this quietude. Suddenly I have time to walk through the streets and ask myself questions.
Without the pressure of deadlines, without the stress... and at the same time it should not really be like this.

Joao Barbosa

It reminded me of the journey of life, mostly when you look back into your past and memories where you cannot go back to. However, you can still see them. You can still see some of the richest and colourful memories but also some of the darkest moments that you went through.

Lisa Therese

The world is now in a frightening situation. Bustling cities have turned into ghost towns, streets are empty, public squares are abandoned and our race; the homo sapiens is the root cause for all this.
The photograph of the empty street was taken from an old settlement of Dawoodi Bohras in the quaint town of Sidhpur in North Gujarat, India. The majestic Bohra houses are an amalgamation of local building techniques with European motifs and carvings. They stand as a symbol of the long lost trade connections that the Bohra community had with Europe. and Asia. The careless and imprudent behaviour of today's generation has given way for deterioration of these beautiful mansions, as they are left unattended or are abandoned. When the whole generation decides to leave their ancestral homes for the comforts of city life, these structures of immense heritage and architectural value are left behind, turning into silent, empty spaces. Century-old empty Bohra houses still stand, facing each other, flanking the lifeless street between them, longing for the lost liveliness, care, and love.
When an inconspicuous virus can turn our world upside down, force us to change our routines, practice social distancing and abandon our streets, workplaces and plazas, it is time to contemplate. The time has come to give a minute to think about all those spaces which we neglected and abandoned long back for the pleasure from the spaces that we are forced to abandon now.

Thorsten Schmidtkord

Düsseldorf's old town is called the "longest bar in the world". On the weekends thousands of locals and tourists celebrate in about 250 pubs and five home breweries.
After the shutdown the alleys are empty, an eerie silence. One discovers corners, details that were previously not visible due to the crowds. I walk through the streets, focused, every noise I perceive partly frightening. Only when looking at the pictures I become aware of the scale of the situation. Homeless people lose their sources of income through the loss of empty bottle cash. How will the old town look like after the crisis? The pictures have a certain fascination for some people, on the other hand they trigger great sadness amongst locals.

Simon Koy

When i pass the streets in Munich right now it reminds me of the Sunday walks of my childhood. The city was smaller and not as busy as it is today. It’s a strange feeling, but on the other hand very interesting.

Thomas Koy

Saturday at the Alexanderplatz in Berlin with best springweather means usually a lot of people, tourists and residents. But at this time, there is no one.
I cross the place nearly every morning on the way to my studio, often it´s so crowded, that you get annoyed, because to many people aren´t looking, crossing you way…
But in these times it´s contemplative, because you have time, you feel free on the one hand and also strange in times of beeing alone at this huge place. 
Berlin is calm at the moment, it’s new to see the city empty, but it´s not bleak, the springweather makes it less dificult.

Jennifer Zumbusch

It's spring ... finally. The sun warms, the birds sing and the flowers shine from every corner. With her toy in her hand, my daughter runs to the playground at the end of the street. Finally digging, swinging, sliding again. Ready to go.
But the barrier tape around the entire playground cannot be overlooked. Sad children's eyes of a two-year-old look at me inquiringly: "Is the slide sick?" - "Not yet, but to keep it healthy, we have to keep our distance." Amazingly calm, she grabs her toy again, takes me by the hand and we go home. From now on, it's time to wait. Wait for whatever will happen; wait for it to pass quickly and hope that everything ends well."

Amanda Alice Rosengarth

A change of perspective. The Search for the Great Perhaps (2019-2020)

Haven't we always been alone together? Maybe we just didn't pay attention or listen carefully. Maybe it was because the clocks were ticking so fast. Maybe because we had other things on our minds. More important things, we thought. Now the clocks are stopped. It's quiet, and we look and we listen. Our search for the big maybe is over, and yet it has only just begun. From another perspective.

Frederik Röh

The Reeperbahn and the große Freiheit with the Beatles - Platz at Hamburg St.Pauli is a "party area": it is loud, full, narrow and unrestrained. With the beginning of the lockdown this was over: from one day to the next there was silence and emptiness in a place otherwise considered synonymous with plump living. As I walked through the streets there were birds to be heard. I saw things that I had never noticed before. The architecture was visible again, as there were no cars on the road. As if this place, which is usually always awake, was asleep.
For me, this mood is both scary and beautiful at the same time: a thoroughly fascinating aesthetic reduction that allows me to discover the public urban space in a completely new way. But also an emptiness and silence that arouses oppressive feelings. I like the thought that there are still things on this earth that are bigger than all the Trumps, bigger than popes or bigger than capital. And I have a small hope that after overcoming the medical crisis the world will not fall into old patterns immediatly, but will take something with it from the experiences of these weeks with curfews, entry restrictions and "social distancing". Because social renunciation does not lead to loneliness, but solidarity and willingness to help people is increasing.
As bad as the consequences of the pandemic are for individuals, it also shows that things can be different. It is a chance. Namely, the chance that we all turn together towards a world that is more worth living in, where the current emptiness is slowly being filled with life again, the purpose of which may no longer lie exclusively in personal and economic maximisation.

Victor He

Half of the world is locked down and turn Marina Bay into a ghost town. Garden By The Bay in the middle of the empty big banks.

Ayumi White

A small shrine located amongst the deep green forests of Mt.Oyama, Kanagawa, Japan.  Almost one hundred years old, this shrine is used to having at least 3 million visitors every year but due to Covid-19, it now stands alone. 
At the bottom of Mt.Oyama, people are sat at home impatiently waiting for the day they can gain access to anything and everything they want again. “How long is this going to go on for?” they ask themselves. 
At the top of Mt.Oyama, the sky stretches over the small shrine like never before and the trees stand more proud than they did yesterday. “What have we done to deserve this peace and quiet?” they whisper to each other.

Thomas Rosenthal

A golden, aspiring angel of victory, at whose feet tourists have otherwise crowded every day for 150 years to enjoy the view. This angel now hovers undisturbed above the Tiergarten and balances on the empty visitor "cage" of the column. Memories of black and white film scenes from the famous movie "Der Himmel über Berlin" by Wim Wenders, overlay the current perspective. At that time Bruno Ganz, himself depicting an angel, sat on the wings of the "Goldelse", as this sculpture is popularly called. Yes, up here the world seems to be back in order again...not only the sudden sharp drop in CO2 levels in the air, which gives climate change some breathing space. Covid19 - a climate activist against his will?

Anna Ausheva

It is unusual to see empty streets and closed cafés, shops and restaurants, frightening and mesmerizing at the same time. I liked taking pictures of empty streets, viewing the geometry of the city without being distracted by passers-by. A similar feeling happens when you are alone at home and enjoy the silence.
But seeing a city filled, but not crowded, with people is much nicer! Although I am an introvert, I like the noise of a café, taking pictures and drawing of people, meeting relatives and friends. Miss all this.
Glad for nature, she has a small vacation now. I hope humanity will learn the mistakes and will protect our fragile ecosystem.

Svea Pietschmann

Night

Berlin. May 2020. Life slowly returns to the city. Shops are opening, soon the restaurants will follow. Hotels may have visitors again, soon. 
The night’s still empty. Roaming through my neighborhood Berlin-Friedrichshain. Where normally the streets are packed with people between 10 pm and 1 am, colorful and cheerful – nothing. 
Here and there I see a few people with a beer – keeping their two meters of distance. 
Bars, pubs, clubs still have to wait. Too risky. Not essential? Non-existential? ... what if they don't survive?