Sunday Morning

Pandemic: A snapshot of life in Memphis

By David Morgan

April 26, 2020 / 8:26 AM EDT / CBS News

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, photographer Jamie Harmon has been taking portraits (from a proper distance) of fellow Memphis residents whose lives, like all of ours, have been affected by stay-at-home orders and social distancing. His series, titled "Quarantine Memphis," doesn't quite get inside people's homes (though we do glimpse décor, and the occasional dinosaur), but depicts them in stasis – frozen at a window sill or door stoop, their lives trapped in an uncertain moment in time.

"Quarantine Memphis"

Of his series, Harmon writes, "These images started on March 14th, 2020, born out of my need to document everything that happens in the neighborhood, city, state, country, world that I live in."

Jamie Harmon

Jamie Harmon's interest in photography was instilled from an early age. Born in Mississippi, his family moved frequently as he grew up, and a camera and darkroom became an extension of himself. Settling in Memphis, Harmon has constructed a portable photobooth, built out of a trailer and dubbed "Amurica," which allows him to serve as a "visual anthropologist."

"Quarantine Memphis"

As Harmon told Memphis Magazine in 2015, the inspiration for much of his work – which calls to mind the playful images of William Eggleston – has been subliminal, more credited to his surroundings and to objects than to past masters: "I saw the tricycle picture of Eggleston and thought, 'Someone else took a picture I would've taken if I'd been alive then.' I was influenced by Eggleston without even knowing it."

"Quarantine Memphis"

At his project website, quarantinememphis.com, Memphis residents are invited to sign up to have their lockdown portraits taken.

"Quarantine Memphis"