‘Pull-Up Portraits’: Life amid pandemic

One photographer documented how her community was living through it.

Photographer Melissa Alexander captures how her Instagram followers have dealt with crisis.

Frame by frame, photographer Melissa Alexander documented Atlanta’s West End during the last several years, capturing a vibrant black neighborhood in the throes of gentrification.

It’s important to remember what was and then honor it with pictures, said Alexander, who goes by the moniker “Phyllis Iller,” a play on the legendary comic Phyllis Diller. It’s also her neighborhood.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Alexander watched it unfold. As metro Atlanta locked down, Alexander, her daughter and mother followed directives to stay inside. But like many others, Alexander found the isolation dispiriting. Then her friend Olamma Oparah suggested a socially distant visit with her family. The photographer jumped at the chance. The ground rules were simple: Stay at least 6 feet apart, and wear a mask. Oparah and her son showed up on the appointed afternoon and stayed in the car.

But after an hour or so of talking, it occurred to Alexander that what they were doing was historic, even on the smallest of scales. So she ran inside her house, grabbed her camera and then started taking pictures of Oparah and her son. From that visit came the idea of what Alexander is calling “Pull-Up Portraits.” Through Instagram, she began making appointments with followers who wanted to have their portraits made to show how they were living through the pandemic. It was up to them how they wanted to style themselves. All Alexander wanted was an expression of the moment.

‘People say, “I haven’t dressed up in a month. I’ve been wearing sweatpants.” But this gives them a reason to get dressed up and see themselves that way again, before everything happened.’ Melissa Alexander

“Pull-Up Portraits” photographer

“People say, ‘I haven’t dressed up in a month. I’ve been wearing sweatpants.’ But this gives them a reason to get dressed up and see themselves that way again, before everything happened,” Alexander said.

Now that stay-at-home orders have been lifted, Alexander is winding down the project. Yet it remains a testament to a historic moment in the West End, and the rest of the world.

“It’s a documentation of our resilience,” Alexander said. One photojournalist at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Alyssa Pointer, spent an afternoon in early May with Alexander at a photo shoot. Pointer follows Alexander on Instagram, took notice of the project and thought “Pull-Up Portraits” — and its creator — should be documented. Pointer’s photographs accompany this story, as indicated in the photo captions, alongside Alexander’s photographs. Here, both record memorable moments that represent how Atlanta’s African American community has been unquestionably shaped by COVID-19.

“I took my son to see Titi Mel. I pulled up in the car and put on my hazards. I sat in the car, and she (Melissa) was on the sidewalk. We were out there such a long time, talking, and she was like, ‘Hold on,’ and she ran in the house and got her camera. I got out to stretch. My son got up on the sunroof.

It was important for (all of ) us to practice social distancing because we love each other, and because we love each other, we stay away from each other. Even if we’re 6 feet away, the love is still there.”

ALYSSA POINTER / ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM “I wanted to commemorate this whole situation. I hope I’m never in a situation again where people are fighting over toilet paper, and I hope I’m never in a quarantine situation again.”

MELISSA ALEXANDER Stephens is among those whom Melissa Alexander has photographed during the pandemic. Chandler Stephens, Atlanta

ALYSSA POINTER / ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM Melissa Alexander engages with clients at a 30-minute “Pull-Up Portrait” session in a field in Atlanta’s West End last month. She started the concept “as an opportunity to celebrate with those who feel rejuvenated and to uplift those who are in need of emotional fortification.”