A camera, a mask and 2020’s most enduring image

Since March, Philadelphia area photographer Kyle Cassidy has taken pictures of essential workers as a part of a series called “Between Us and Catastrophe:” healthcare workers, Instacart shoppers, members of city government, sanitation workers, and more. 

Cassidy interviewed these workers as well, asking them about the risks they’re taking and the sacrificing they’re making to keep us all safe. “Some of these people are fighting COVID because they heard the clarion call and they ran out to stand between us and this virus and fight it. And other people are fighting this virus because we left them out there,” he says.

Why could pictures like these, highlighting essential workers, stay with us as the most enduring images of 2020? 

Cassidy’s photographs are currently on display at an outdoor exhibit at the Science History Institute.