I Was an Essential Worker During America’s First Covid-19 Lockdown. Here’s My Story.

Documenting the pandemic as a news photographer

Self portrait during early lockdowns. Photos by the author.

I still remember the evening of March 16, 2020 vividly. That was the night that I received a fateful text message that would make me one of the first Americans locked down due to COVID-19.

As a professional photographer, I had been following COVID closely since it was first reported in China in late 2019. Some of my earliest pandemic photos show signs where COVID-19 was still officially called the “Wuhan Coronavirus.”

One of my first photos documenting Covid-19, taken January 2020

When the Grand Princess cruise ship docked to offload sick passengers in early March, I drove to Oakland and climbed a massive grandstand, finding a high enough angle to photograph the proceedings.

The Grand Princess offloads sick passengers in Oakland

There were people in hazmat suits offloading passengers into giant, white containment tents. It was like the terrifying scene in ET where government agents descend on the protagonist’s house.