I picked this one up sometime after reading Insomniac City, also by Bill Hayes. This book is a small snapshot of New York City during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the early days of quarantining, and is both a love letter to the city and to community.

It discusses all of the things missed, with more of Hayes’ beautiful photography, and how we pang for community when it’s been unexpectedly stripped of us.

Like all of Hayes’ work I’ve interacted with, it’s sentimental and raw, honest and blunt.

I had seen some negative reviews of it from people who misunderstood what the book was about –expecting some intensive description of the COVID-19 pandemic and not one artist’s experience of it. The book is a diary in many ways and beautifully composed, written at a time when no one knew what was going on and what the future held.