HOW WE FACED 2020’S TESTS

Making face-toface connections in 2020 has never been more difficult. COVID-19 has brought not only heartbreaking loss of life and affected the livelihoods of millions, it has also kept us apart from close friends and family. The distance has also transformed the way we work. Those in the business of creating culture have had to come up with inventive ways to safely bring art and entertainment to audiences looking for meaning and diversion during the pandemic.

For Times reporters and photographers, covering these creators has brought new challenges. As you might expect, interviews and even some photo sessions were done on Zoom or Skype. Yet many in Hollywood and the arts world let our photographers into their homes and backyards or met us at parks or nature reserves for socially distanced portraits. These shoots required extra planning, creativity and lots of personal protective equipment. The results, true collaborations between subject and photographer, led to a collection of portraits that make our third annual Sunday Calendar photo issue our strongest yet.

When entertainment photo editor Ken Kwok presented his selections to art directors An Amlotte and Judith Pryor, the hard part was finding space for all of the work we wanted to showcase from Times photographers. What follows are the year’s most captivating portraits of creators who in a time of pandemic disruption made culture meaningful.