I took a picture of me wearing a medical mask when I was spraying some poison in the garden in order to kill some weeds. I was wearing it to protect myself from inhaling the fumes. I am not sure how well that worked because I could sense a quite strong smell right through this mask.
When I was watching the picture later its meaning turned into a completely different direction. It reminded me of the current Corona Virus pandemic and the facial mask became to me a symbol of this world white scare. I started processing it in Lightroom and Snapseed and added a lot of contrast and also some grain until I found it expressed how I am feeling with this situation.
I am actually not scared. I know that human kind will not be able to contain this virus and that it will spread world wide. Efforts to contain it won’t work. In the best case it might be possible to delay the spread a little which would reduce the sudden impact of the disease on health systems and reduce the risk of overwhelming hospitals and the whole care system. However complete prevention will not be possible.
I was wondering if it is ethically ok to post such a picture. I mean, I am not expressing my own feelings because I don’t feel scared. I am visually reflecting on the mood that is being transmitted worldwide via the media. I don’t want to be alarmist. I don’t want to evoke panic. It’s meant as a mere reflection of what I am sensing when I read and watch the media online.
It rarely happens that I want to explain and justify my own pictures. But in this case I find it necessary
