Bella Newman's Quarantine Diary

Newman, a 21 year old photographer in her second-to-last semester at New York University's filmmaking program, is sheltering-in-place in her childhood home in suburban Pennsylvania. Using her dad's old digital camera which captured photos of her as a child, Newman has compiled this quarantine collection as a tribute to her younger self, free of responsibilities and with nothing to do. Though creativity is demanded of Newman regularly, in her work and her schooling, these provincial surroundings have pushed the photographer to use childhood objects (dolls, stuffed animals, plastic toys) and household items in her art, the former adding to a sort of haunted, forgotten feeling. As teenagers quarantine, in their childhood homes with their families, their own development is being challenged. This is a stage for high schoolers to be out of the house and independent. Until that is possible again, we'll adapt to what we grew up in and make it our own or make it our art.