Silent Cities

A moving, recognizable look at life on lockdown and the effect the coronavirus pandemic had across the world—because every city had a story to tell, and at the end of it all, we were all in it together. 

In the past year, hospitals filled, highways and subways emptied, landmarks and parks were deserted, our healthcare workers became increasingly fatigued and frustrated, and nearly all human activity paused. In photographs, The Great Wall and The Colosseum look photoshopped, with no tourists in sight. This book is unique in that it creates a visual narrative to document that emptiness as a way to reflect and to find solace amid the shock. A year later, it's something we've all seen and can relate to.
 
This is a stunning collection of the abandoned and austere sights of fifteen major cities throughout the world during the peak outbreak of COVID-19. With their fine art backgrounds and through their network of professional photographers, Julie and Jeffrey Loria worked together to capture the unprecedented lockdown conditions worldwide. The photos show a range of emotions from the physical and psychological weight of caskets being carried to a Rio cemetery, to the completely empty and eerie Times Square and Rodeo Drive, to the patriotic pride in Rome's t-shirt display honoring their Italian flag colors as a symbol of hope. The photographs are not only a reminder of the harrowing pandemic that hushed some of the world’s greatest urban streets, but also proof that across the globe, we were all in this together. Beneath the somberness in these images, there is a hint of beauty amid the stillness, but most of all, there is the presence of hope and promise that we will thrive again. Cities featured include:
 

• New York
• Jerusalem
• Boston
• Tokyo
• Paris
• Los Angeles
• Rome
• Rio de Janeiro
• San Francisco
• Washington, DC
• London
• Miami
• Tel Aviv
• Madrid
• Chicago

Reviews

"A conceptual compilation of impressive places that seem to come from our collective memory, as each of us knows them. But something crucial is different in the usual places. The planet seems to have come to a standstill. Completely emptied, these images speak to us and question the testimonies of human civilization and culture in an unforgettable manner. A brilliant job that makes us think."
 —Andreas Gursky

“The book’s shocking images together evoke empathy and promise during a new time when our essential cities were masked into stillness.”
—Laurent Le Bon, Director, Centre Pompidou, Paris

"A powerful tribute to 2020—the year we never saw, but will never forget. Silent Cities captures that haunting shared moment in our collective history." 
—Maya Lin, Architect and Sculptor 

"In Silent Cities Jeffrey and Julie Loria have given us a magnificent and poignant document, full of beauty, majesty, and heartbreak. In 2020, the public life of our great cities suddenly ceased and they became eerily, hauntingly empty. Silent Cities is a vital record of this extraordinary and awful time. I know it will be every bit as compelling when our cities are silent no more."
—Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic, author of Why Architecture Matters
 
"Silent Cities is an arresting photographic compendium of some of the world's great public places at pause, as if they were theatrical stage sets waiting for the drama of daily life to begin again."
—Robert A.M. Stern, Architect