[Dream] Images of Earth in Quarantine – Some Photographs in Times of Crisis without Humans

Abstract

Abstract This essay considers human and nonhuman well-being, looking through a culturally-engaged visual analysis of three different groups of photographic images depicting planet earth seemingly in quarantine that were shared widely on social media during the lockdown imposed in many countries due to the Corona pandemic and that seemed to be in a (subconscious) dialogue with each other. They consist of 1. empty city spaces, 2. the proclaimed return of ‘wildlife’ (e.g., the fake images of dolphins in Venetian canals), and 3. satellite images of improved air and water quality. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s Short History of Photography and Eugène Atget’s works in comparison to current photographs, it examines why certain images proliferate and what type of narratives, for example, of ‘healing’ the environmental crisis, they may propose.