TAMPA, Fla. — Madison Harrison rarely goes anywhere without her camera. For the past few months, she’s rarely gone anywhere at all.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot.
“I feel like if you get the right shot you framed up well you get the right story I think that one image can really speak more volumes,” said the 13-year-old. “I just feel at peace when I’m taking photos and not thinking about anything. Just thinking about how to size it up and look for something to capture.”
The teen, who has only ventured out to the grocery store a few times since March, has been taking photos for years. She started when she was four and began taking pictures of friend’s dolls as a business shortly after. She eventually achieved a goal of taking a photo of then-President Barack Obama in 2016.
Photography has always been important to her. Now, maybe more than ever.
“It’s like you moved to a different town, you know what I mean?,” she said about driving around town snapping photos in places like empty parking lots and barren grocery store aisles. “I have really been missing going to school because the whole thing started, like school cut, right around March. I miss my friends very much.”
It’s just weird to see the different schools just all empty.”
The pandemic opened the door for Harrison to tell stories with her photos. She likened modern photos of historical events to past paintings of things we see in textbooks now. History may be at the end of her lens now, too.
“I hope when people see my photographs they are able to remember what happened (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and understand the bad times but then remember not all hope is lost,” she said. “I think I’ll remember how people came together to combat this.”
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