The Love and Loneliness of Quarantine Times
Three U-M women's lacrosse players chronicle life during COVID-19 pandemic
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- David Turnley had an assignment for his documentary photography class. The University of Michigan associate professor asked his students to turn their cameras inward and document life amid the coronavirus pandemic for themselves, friends and loved ones.
Turnley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and documentarian while with the Detroit Free Press, found a creative way for his students to express themselves by capturing snapshots that revealed their full range of current emotions -- from love to loneliness, from certainty to the unknown.
Wolverine women's lacrosse players Molly Garrett, Quinn Melidona and Sydney Whitaker participated in the five-week project, sending their best work on a weekly basis to Turnley for his review and response. They will "cherish" the photos as a forever visual scrapbook of the quarantine times, with their best work also appearing in a YouTube compilation by Turnley.
First, they walked away together after just six games in what was to be their senior season. The NCAA canceled the remaining winter and spring sports schedules between their lacrosse team's March 4 win at Vanderbilt and March 13 contest at Cincinnati.
It was time for everyone to go home.
Garrett, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida; Melidona, in Rochester, New York; and Whitaker, in Columbia, South Carolina, are with their families now. However, they received great news when the NCAA deemed that spring-sports seniors would get "do-over" senior seasons, and they can't wait to return to a program they have helped head coach Hannah Nielsen build into one of the nation's best.
"We're very excited for that," said Whitaker.
Garrett was one of five collegiate players on Team USA's 2019 Fall Classic roster and a member of the Big Ten All-Tournament team in 2019.
"I had big hopes for the (2020) team," said Garrett, who was a team captain along with Melidona. "So, to be granted another year was a relatively easy decision to accept."
The three documentarians lived with five other teammates and two more in the orange-siding, green-shingled house they rented together across from Yost Ice Arena, which they dubbed the "Carrot House." The two-story Victorian with a finished attic and a big bay window had been their home for three years.
Some of their best photos were taken there, and others were shot back home or at the beach. The three Michigan Athletic Academic Achievement Award winners each took a break recently to discuss what it was like seeing these days through the lenses of their cameras.
New Smyrna Beach is an idyllic vacation spot along the Atlantic Ocean. It has waves that attract surfers, sand beaches you can drive cars onto, a long fishing pier and one of the most photographed lighthouses in the southeast at the Ponce de Leon Inlet. However, those attractions have been closed for most of the quarantine period. Though, the beaches, just a short walk from the family home, reopened during the first week of May.
She is there with her father, Scott, a commercial real estate agent, and mother, Chris, who retired from her office job and now assists Scott.
"This is a very interesting time for everybody," said Molly, "and so it was pretty cool to document what we're all experiencing in a time like this. For me, it was taking pictures of my parents. My dad was working from home. I took photos of the neighborhood. It will be cool to look back on this and reflect upon it in years to come: 'Oh, yeah, that's what it was like to be quarantined.'"
One of her favorite photos is of her father, in his home office with blueprints, property photos, printouts and a legal pad full of notes on his desk, a phone to his ear.
"I was trying to catch him in action," said Garrett, who also is considering a career in real estate. "He was coming off the phone and he had a focused face on. He was concentrating on what he was doing, and I just wanted to catch him in that moment."
There are two beach shots. One photo is taken low from the entrance to a small boardwalk that creates a wooden tunnel effect with blue shores and blue skies dotted with puffy, white clouds in the distance. Low-lying palms line the wood-slatted pathway. Then there's the close-up shot of a moist palm frond.
"I've always been into photos of nature," said Garrett. "I was on an afternoon walk when I took the photo of the boardwalk, trying to get out of the house and clear my mind. I was listening to the ocean and trying to calm down from a tough day at home during quarantine. So, I took that photo because I found it very peaceful in that setting."
What feedback has she received on the photos?
"My parents have always liked the photos I've taken," said Garrett. "They've enjoyed the nature photography. And professor Turnley's also been very complimentary and nice about the pictures I've sent him. It's nice getting that feedback.
"I look at them with a critic's eye, I guess. I say, 'Man, I wish it looked like this.' Or I wish the lighting was different. But there are certain shots you always enjoy. One coming to mind is a photo of me and my teammates on our last day on campus before everybody started heading home. It was just us on the front porch of the house we lived in in Ann Arbor, and there are people hugging. Someone was crying."
That photo is a very poignant one taken under the front porch lights of the "Carrot House" with Catherine Granito, facing the camera, hugging Casey Cummo. Nadine Stewart is standing a step higher behind them, smiling and motioning to Melidona coming up the stairs. Sara Parnes is on the left, checking her phone.
"That picture," Garrett added, "I think I'm definitely going to look back on for years. It was a great time for us, but was a sad moment with us being together for the last day."
Melidona said her two favorite photos were of her teammates departing that "Carrot House," and another of her father, Mario, and brother, Sam, cooking for the family when she returned home to New York.
"I was looking for the picture of people packing up and somehow misplaced it," Melidona wrote while emailing her photos, hoping to find the one she took at the same time as Garrett's. "I have added the picture of the 'Carrot House' the day I left -- it is from the view of my car.
"I have also added another photo which I love. The picture of my parents on a family hike. Turnley speaks a lot about capturing life's moments. It is in the little things like holding a hand. This image brings up thoughts around what is in a touch, a glance. Those hands are 30 years strong of love and sacrifice. Serving their community, their family and each other. Turnley speaks a lot about capturing life's moments. It is in the little things like holding a hand."
And so she struck gold with her thoughts about her parents as much as the two photos of them -- first shot from behind and then a close-up of Michel and Mario holding hands. A loving daughter saw much more than just the grip.
The assignment allowed her to focus on those "little things" that mean so much in the big picture.
"At first," Melidona said, "I wasn't quite sure where I was going to take it. Then I started capturing photos of those last memories shared with my team. The end of the year came a lot sooner and faster than we wanted. Packing the bags is when it became real -- and when you're taking stuff off the walls of the house where you've lived for three years and empty the drawers, that's when it really started to hit.
"And then I photographed the whole packing up and going home, and being with my family."
She joined her parents and brothers Sam and Luke back home. Older sister, Taylor Rivera, and her husband, Alex Rivera, are living in the carriage house in the backyard to complete their quarantine team.
"We're all living under the same roof," said Melidona, "and so family dinners are still a very real thing. One of the photos I really like is of Sam and my dad cooking dinner. He has a huge smile on his face that you don't know what it's from. But he was cooking vegetables and trying to flip over things, acting like he was on a cooking show, and ended up spilling half the pan.
"Our dog was grateful for that."
She laughed at that memory.
"I've definitely grown very grateful to have siblings right now," said Melidona. "They keep me laughing. There hasn't been a dull day yet. We go for walks around the neighborhood ... Nights, we all try to binge-watch the same show after dinner.
"And, with the photos I'm taking, it's like Turnley says, 'You have to take a step back and enjoy the moment.' And in the cooking photo, my dad's Italian and he grew up in a very Italian family. So, food's always been important to tradition and legacy. So, that's also something that stood out to me in that photo, passing on a tradition.
"When I look at the photos, my first instinct is to critique them. That's being an athlete, you always look back at what you could've made better or changed something. But my next feeling is being grateful. This extra time I've had with my family, the pictures are a constant reminder of how thankful I am for the time."
Her family has enjoyed the documentary photos, too.
"I've gotten good feedback," Melidona said. "I was scrolling through them on my phone and it actually began inspiring my mom, who is really big on scrapbooking, and my sister. So now, mom is going to create a COVID scrapbook.
"You don't really think too much goes on because the days can seem long, but then, when you look back at these pictures, you realize how many things have still happened in the past six weeks."
Her family drove from their home in the capitol city of Columbia to the Atlantic Ocean coast and their beach house at Murrells Inlet, just south of Myrtle Beach, for spring break. There, Whitaker snapped one of her two favorite shots from the 70 she sent Turnley during the five-week experience, and two others she included with her best.
"There is a picture on the beach of a boy with the blue sky behind," said Whitaker. "That's my brother, Luke Whitaker, and I just love the simplicity of it. It's one of my favorites. The other one I really like is of my mom and my stepbrother (Kelley and Connor Lloyd) out by a lake at my aunt's house. It's also simple, but I like it a lot. I like the background and everything.
"They remind me of family and togetherness, and, honestly, quarantine. It's just that whole sense of togetherness I like."
The beach was the backdrop for two more photos Whitaker enjoyed taking.
Her sister, Morgan Whitaker, a sophomore on the Michigan lacrosse team, is grinning and clapping in knee-deep water while watching her friend, Olivia Jacob, smiling and on her side after the slight undertow of the surf took her down near shore. The photo is so crisp that you can almost hear the low roar of the ocean coming in and going out.
Sydney said, "This picture represents happiness to me; the bright colors and genuine joy on their faces really exemplifies how the entire week went."
Luke and Connor are laying in the sand to the left while friends Olivia and Anna Smith and Morgan are sitting on beach towels while conversing. The scene between the beachfront houses and the Atlantic is dotted with a cooler, sunscreen and sandals on a lazy day made for soaking in rays and friendship.
"That photo is of a group of family and friends I was quarantined with for the first week I was home," said Sydney. "Seeing this picture reminds me of the great memories we made that week from hanging out on the beach to celebrating a quarantine birthday (Jacob turned 20 on April 3)."
Whitaker, a communications and media major who grew up in Virginia, said she never thought much about taking photos until this assignment.
"It's given me something I can look back on and tangibly see what I was doing during quarantine and what my family was doing," said Whitaker. "It's a way to remember it. Before, I never would've thought, 'This is a great moment; let's take a picture.'"
What emotions did she experience in taking the shots?
"I was very happy during all of it," said Whitaker. "I was just happy to be at the beach, and not in Ann Arbor and the cold. It was just a great experience doing all of it, and I highly recommend David Turnley's class.
"My grandma (Carol Whitaker) messaged me after seeing them, and told me how awesome she thinks the whole project is. My mom saw it and thought it was really cool. My family followed it as I was doing it and thought it was really interesting.
"And I really enjoyed seeing the final (YouTube) video of everyone's pictures, the whole compilation. I thought it was cool that someone like David Turnley, especially with his prestige, was able to put our work into something with his name on it. There are so many different eyes on it."
Having her teammates in the project with her was unique.
"We would talk about it weekly and send each other our pictures every week," said Whitaker. "We're all proud of each other's work. It was something none of us had focused on until the class, and then it became like a fun little hobby to do. So, we cherish the pictures."
Had any of them been bitten by the documentarian bug from the class and their quarantine photo assignment?
"I've thought about it," said Garrett, a sport management major who sees the extra year at Michigan as an opportunity for more career clarity. "From this class I was actually thinking of looking into working for a newspaper. It was a very interesting class in general, and David Turnley's an interesting person. I was able to learn so much from him, and about his life. I took his class on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm so glad I did."
Has it made them all think like a documentarian?
"I would say so," said Whitaker, a communications and media major. "I wouldn't say that photography is the area I'm leaning toward due to this class, but it definitely has made me more interested in the social media aspects of communication.
"Before his class, I never really had that much of an interest in photography. But now, throughout my day, I'll think of certain things that David Turnley has told us in class, and I think, 'Oh, that'll make a great picture!'"
Melidona, a general studies major who will add an American culture major in the upcoming school year, said of further documentarian interest: "I think so. I've actually already talked to Turnley about it and I might be a little addicted right now. You know, taking the pictures, and I've always loved hearing people's stories and history has always fascinated me. So, he basically gave me an avenue to continue that interest and passion about it. He's very open to helping you really develop your craft, which was super cool. I'm real interested in continuing conversations with him."
Garrett summed it up: "As tough as it was to finish the school year without being in classrooms and taking classes online, it was an interesting way to be able to finish the year with this photography class. We were able to document everything that was going on."