Photographing Grief during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Image for Photographing Grief during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Vanessa Dyer, center, her sister, Alex Vasquez, and their father, Enrique Rangel, are brought to tears as they and their brother Andy Rangel, on FaceTime, speak to their mother, Leonor "Nora" Rangel, who was on a ventilator at San Antonio’s Southwest General Hospital

Lisa Krantz, a 2020 Nieman Fellow, on covering the coronavirus pandemic's impact on her community as a photographer for the San Antonio Express-News:


“I met this family at a prayer vigil they held outside the hospital for Leonor “Nora” Rangel, who was on a ventilator. Wearing a mask, I was allowed into the home of her daughter Vanessa Dyer, her sister, Alex, and their father, Enrique, who had recovered from Covid-19, as they talked to Nora on Facetime. This moment evolved as Andy, another sibling, also on Facetime at his home, told their mother if she was tired it was okay to go. She had been in the hospital for 37 days and on a ventilator for 17. She passed that Sunday with her family by her side on Facetime.”