"Love is, in a way, a lesson in courage" Alain Badiou, 2020
Digital love has its limits. Technology allows for relationships that may not have developed without it, and it sustains them. But there is little intimacy or spontaneity to be found through calls and texts. Videos glitch, connections shudder, and the pixelated screens that reveal people also imprison them.
Covid-19 forced countless couples and families to virtually communicate as governments shut borders and restricted movement, separating them indefinitely. A Pandemic Love Story reveals the stories of bi-national couples pushed apart for over a year, co-opting their only form of communication throughout the pandemic — the video call — to do so.
Several of the couples were awaiting visas to reunite before the pandemic hit, while abrupt border closures separated others previously living together. And virtual conversations, photographs, and films reveal their emotion, exhaustion and frustration, exploring the negative impacts of indefinite separation, immigration processes, and digital communication, on their relationships and mental health, both before the pandemic and throughout it.
The project also questions perceptions of love, relationships, and family in a progressively digital and globalised world. Love is varied and amorphous. Yet, the bureaucratic processes of immigration officials and policymakers narrowly-define it. A reality that Covid-19 has brought to the fore with border closures drastically impacting couples and families who fall outside of definitions, which may have enabled them to reunite.
Thousands of couples remain separated due to Covid-19 restrictions. Many of whom feel unrepresented and ignored. Their love has become politicised in the pandemic. And communities such as the global grassroots movement Love is Not Tourism have grown to help reunite them. A Pandemic Love Story includes a virtual map to support the community by inviting other binational couples and families to share their stories.
“One of the top immigration managers famously said, this is one of the most subjective areas of policy and when you have subjective areas you’re going to have inconsistency,” recounts the New Zealand immigration advisor Katy Armstrong. The pandemic has brought issues surrounding immigration and definitions of love, relationships and family into focus. But, the problems are not limited to it.
In an era where gender and sexuality are fluid, marriage is no longer a pinnacle of commitment and love; families and relationships take many different forms; and digital technologies connect people worldwide; A Pandemic Love Story asks should not immigration policies reflect this? Are bureaucratic definitions of love, relationships and family relevant, and were they ever?
"Love is, in a way, a lesson in courage" Alain Badiou, 2020
Digital love has its limits. Technology allows for relationships that may not have developed without it, and it sustains them. But there is little intimacy or spontaneity to be found through calls and texts. Videos glitch, connections shudder, and the pixelated screens that reveal people also imprison them.
Covid-19 forced countless couples and families to virtually communicate as governments shut borders and restricted movement, separating them indefinitely. A Pandemic Love Story reveals the stories of bi-national couples pushed apart for over a year, co-opting their only form of communication throughout the pandemic — the video call — to do so.
Several of the couples were awaiting visas to reunite before the pandemic hit, while abrupt border closures separated others previously living together. And virtual conversations, photographs, and films reveal their emotion, exhaustion and frustration, exploring the negative impacts of indefinite separation, immigration processes, and digital communication, on their relationships and mental health, both before the pandemic and throughout it.
The project also questions perceptions of love, relationships, and family in a progressively digital and globalised world. Love is varied and amorphous. Yet, the bureaucratic processes of immigration officials and policymakers narrowly-define it. A reality that Covid-19 has brought to the fore with border closures drastically impacting couples and families who fall outside of definitions, which may have enabled them to reunite.
Thousands of couples remain separated due to Covid-19 restrictions. Many of whom feel unrepresented and ignored. Their love has become politicised in the pandemic. And communities such as the global grassroots movement Love is Not Tourism have grown to help reunite them. A Pandemic Love Story includes a virtual map to support the community by inviting other binational couples and families to share their stories.
“One of the top immigration managers famously said, this is one of the most subjective areas of policy and when you have subjective areas you’re going to have inconsistency,” recounts the New Zealand immigration advisor Katy Armstrong. The pandemic has brought issues surrounding immigration and definitions of love, relationships and family into focus. But, the problems are not limited to it.
In an era where gender and sexuality are fluid, marriage is no longer a pinnacle of commitment and love; families and relationships take many different forms; and digital technologies connect people worldwide; A Pandemic Love Story asks should not immigration policies reflect this? Are bureaucratic definitions of love, relationships and family relevant, and were they ever?
Digital love has its limits. Technology allows for relationships that may not have developed without it, and it sustains them. But there is little intimacy or spontaneity to be found through calls and texts. Videos glitch, connections shudder, and the pixelated screens that reveal people also imprison them.
Covid-19 forced countless couples and families to virtually communicate as governments shut borders and restricted movement, separating them indefinitely. A Pandemic Love Story reveals the stories of bi-national couples pushed apart for over a year, co-opting their only form of communication throughout the pandemic — the video call — to do so.
Several of the couples were awaiting visas to reunite before the pandemic hit, while abrupt border closures separated others previously living together. And virtual conversations, photographs, and films reveal their emotion, exhaustion and frustration, exploring the negative impacts of indefinite separation, immigration processes, and digital communication, on their relationships and mental health, both before the pandemic and throughout it.
The project also questions perceptions of love, relationships, and family in a progressively digital and globalised world. Love is varied and amorphous. Yet, the bureaucratic processes of immigration officials and policymakers narrowly-define it. A reality that Covid-19 has brought to the fore with border closures drastically impacting couples and families who fall outside of definitions, which may have enabled them to reunite.
Thousands of couples remain separated due to Covid-19 restrictions. Many of whom feel unrepresented and ignored. Their love has become politicised in the pandemic. And communities such as the global grassroots movement Love is Not Tourism have grown to help reunite them. A Pandemic Love Story includes a virtual map to support the community by inviting other binational couples and families to share their stories.
“One of the top immigration managers famously said, this is one of the most subjective areas of policy and when you have subjective areas you’re going to have inconsistency,” recounts the New Zealand immigration advisor Katy Armstrong. The pandemic has brought issues surrounding immigration and definitions of love, relationships and family into focus. But, the problems are not limited to it.
In an era where gender and sexuality are fluid, marriage is no longer a pinnacle of commitment and love; families and relationships take many different forms; and digital technologies connect people worldwide; A Pandemic Love Story asks should not immigration policies reflect this? Are bureaucratic definitions of love, relationships and family relevant, and were they ever?
Directed by
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Photography and Video
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Writer
Hannah Abel-Hirsch
Design
Vera Jiménez
Web Development
Raul Benua
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Photography and Video
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Writer
Hannah Abel-Hirsch
Design
Vera Jiménez
Web Development
Raul Benua
Directed by
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Photography and Video
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Writer
Hannah Abel-Hirsch
Design
Vera Jiménez
Web Development
Raul Benua
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Photography and Video
Alejandra Orosco & Paul Gambin
Writer
Hannah Abel-Hirsch
Design
Vera Jiménez
Web Development
Raul Benua
Special thanks to all the couples who shared their stories with us: Arrie and Kirsty, Antonio and Mary, Juli and Wes, Evellyn and Krystian, Breanna and Jamahl, Matleena and Prema and their four kids, Andrea and Virginia, Felipe and Natalie, Aurelie and Justin, Hari and Shahana, Felicia and Jay and Raelynn. Your stories have highlighted the importance of love and family today, more than ever.
Thank you to our team who through their tireless work and patience made this project possible, to Gael Almeida and Claudi Carreras for their guidance, to Sam Guilford, Calvin Kwon, Ross Donihue for their support with our map, and Paola Jimenez and Veronica Boggio for darnos bola siempre.
We would like to show our special gratitude to David Poon, Katy Armstrong, Krishni Metivier and Adalbert Jahnz for their time, reflections and participation.
Finally a big thank you to Love Is Not Tourism, Faces Of Advocacy and all the other communities and separated couples who have been campaigning for family reunification.
This project was funded by the National Geographic Society Emergency Fund for Journalists.
Made through the Cargo Collective Covid-19 support program.
Special thanks to all the couples who shared their stories with us: Arrie and Kirsty, Antonio and Mary, Juli and Wes, Evellyn and Krystian, Breanna and Jamahl, Matleena and Prema and their four kids, Andrea and Virginia, Felipe and Natalie, Aurelie and Justin, Hari and Shahana, Felicia and Jay and Raelynn. Your stories have highlighted the importance of love and family today, more than ever.
Thank you to our team who through their tireless work and patience made this project possible, to Gael Almeida and Claudi Carreras for their guidance, to Sam Guilford, Calvin Kwon, Ross Donihue for their support with our map, and Paola Jimenez and Veronica Boggio for darnos bola siempre.
We would like to show our special gratitude to David Poon, Katy Armstrong, Krishni Metivier and Adalbert Jahnz for their time, reflections and participation.
Finally a big thank you to Love Is Not Tourism, Faces Of Advocacy and all the other communities and separated couples who have been campaigning for family reunification.
This project was funded by the National Geographic Society Emergency Fund for Journalists.
Made through the Cargo Collective Covid-19 support program.
