The Year Of Social Distancing
First off, I hope you and your family are doing well and staying safe in this crazy pandemic time! Start us off with a little background about yourself.
Sure thing! My name is Oreste Mercado. I am a photographer from North Philadelphia. I primarily focus on street and portrait photography but I also have experience in product photography. I have been doing photography for a little over 3 years now.
Have you been able to cope well with all that is going on?
I have been able to cope with this unfortunate situation as best as I can. I am still able to work at my dad's pet supply shop since it is considered an essential business. In terms of being able to work on my photography, it has been a difficult period of time since I am attached to street photography and portrait photography. Not being able to go out and work with others sucks, but I would rather not chance it by going out if I do not have to.
What are some things you're doing to past the time and keep your mind off the Coronavirus noise?
Besides working, I have been editing photos and videos that I were shot before all of this. Some of the photos I am editing now are photos I have taken over a year ago, which is the benefit of not deleting photos from past sessions. Always save those leftover photos! Other than that, I've just been binging a bunch of shows on Netflix and listening to some of my favorite podcasts like Welcome to Nightvale.
I feel like since mostly everyone is unable to do photo-shoots with other people or collaborate in bigger groups; it has either, hindered some creatives output totally, or for some creatives it has given them the opportunity to expose their versatility in the "Creative Entrepreneur" market space. Has "social distancing" been beneficial to you or not? Keeping the loss of business revenue aside. I know we're all hurting in that department.
We are all definitely hurting from all of this, especially with how fast everything happened. It is easy to understand why there are creatives out there that feel like they can not do what they love because to a certain extent, they can not. However, this is an opportunity for those creatives to try their hand at different forms of art or just a different approach to what they already do. For me, considering I have experience at graphic design, I have the option to do a little more than just editing my photography. I would not say that social distancing has been beneficial for me creatively but it has put my attention to things I would not do typically. I am just trying to make the most out of this and stay positive.
We rarely dip into the "political world" but curious to know your thoughts on how the Coronavirus situation is being handled?
I feel like this situation has been mishandled to say the least. The guidelines being put in place now like social distancing is of course necessary but I feel like we could have been more prepared for a scenario like this here in the US.
What is a quote or saying you'd like to leave us with that could help brighten someones day?
Just keep supporting each other. Support your friend's, even if you can not meet up with them. Support your creative community because there are many that are trying their best to adjust to this ever changing idea of normality just like you. People will remember who supported them throughout this.
