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THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT is a sequel to my previous book COCOON, within this project I explore the different thoughts during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic and provide insight into the different experiences around the world.

At this time of writing the pandemic has been ongoing for quite a while now and seems to have evolved to become a well-integrated part of our everyday lives. In fact, Covid-19 has been around for so long, it has become second nature to us to carry around facemasks and hand sanitizer at all times – but how did it come to this?  

The world saw its first cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, where it is commonly said to have been transferred from cave-bats to humans – proposedly by penetrating a person’s skin with its teeth – but this story is highly unlikely, according to The World Health Organization

Nevertheless, WHO does believe that the widespread virus originates from bats – even though it did not spread directly to humans. It is believed that Covid-19 was spread to humans through another animal. Therefore, there is a missing piece between bats and humans. It is still unknown which animal caused this.

Because of the division and discussions that arose during the pandemic, I became interested in how the individual actually experienced it. Is it true what we are being told? Is Bill Gates trying to inject us with microchips? On the opposite side, there are also people who are terribly afraid of it, who haven’t seen anybody or gone outside for weeks or sometimes even months.

Within this project, I bring together 80 personal perspectives from across the globe. Their feelings, experiences, or thoughts tell their unvarnished opinions and reveal their deepest and sometimes pent-up feelings.

I combined their stories with my photography by analyzing the text looking for emotions, or elements that stand out to me. Based on what I feel, I created an image that contains the essence of the text. And thus ultimately creating a triangular relationship between image, text and the feeling, making them reinforce each other.

In retrospect, we still do not truly know the origin story of Covid-19. It has become a political question between nations, and China is believed to be holding back important information about the origin of Covid-19. It will be difficult to find out when and where it all started – perhaps we will never know.