This collection of work by a group of LaGuardia photography and English students documented their experiences during the first COVID lockdown in the spring of 2020. What began with researching archival sources about New York City in the 1980s became a project in creating archival documents. When the college switched to remote learning, the students used their experience studying New York City's past to document the current moment. Their writing and photography will be preserved for future researchers at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. This beautiful volume of work, "Portraits of an Epicenter," contains photographs and writing covering a wide range of topics related to COVID-19 including: mental health, the Black Lives Matter protests, food distribution in Queens, as well as written reflections by students who had to relocate and feared being deported.
