Story and Photos by Amelia Hamilton
Since RIT closed its campus and moved to distance learning, I had no other choice but to drive back to my home in Austin, Texas. I was devasted not to be around my friends and complete my last semester at RIT in person.
While feeling lost and upset, several fellow deaf photographers around the country created a collaborative project which they call the ‘Through the Window’ project. I felt this was such a perfect fit for me especially when I am always exploring and photographing creatively. This project is the best thing that has ever happened to me during this quarantine time.
The participating photographers decided to post through the NextDoor neighborhood App and on Facebook to share the project idea with our neighbors, local families and friends in order to seek subjects to photograph through widows only. This would not be a front porch session, as some photographers are doing. We want to take extra caution photographing through windows so as to keep everyone safe. The plan is to drive from site to site, taking photographs of people in their homes through their windows.
So far, I have done 40+ window portraits and I continue to meet many incredible people who have welcomed me. I’ve been able to safely partake in and photograph birthday celebrations, witness children sharing their artwork and toys, have chats with adults, and recognize familiar faces. This has truly been a heartwarming project to be part of. I hope that this will be something that the loved ones will cherish forever because it is truly an uncanny and uncertain time in our lives, and to be able to document it has been a huge honor for me.
This is an all-volunteer-based project. We are, however, accepting donations, and I am donating any funds raised to www.fuelthefrontline.com/fuel which is helping frontline workers with gratitude and encouragement for which I am proud to be able to do.
As I share the photos through my social media, people are showing gratitude and appreciation as the amount of support continues to swell that we all are in this together. As everyone is in the same boat, it is valuable to capture significant moments and I feel strongly that it should be documented.
After leaving each window session, I feel even more inspired by the overflowing support from everyone in this. The quarantine is expected to be temporary, however, no one is certain how long it will take to get through it. For the time being, I will continue to devote my time and energy to this momentous project. The stories and photographs will ultimately be published in a book so that we can acknowledge and remember this difficult and unique time.
