‘20 & ME is a collection of evidence of how small businesses survived the COVID pandemic. Dan Wood, a letterpress printer and artist talks about the rise of his business, DWRI, a small letterpress shop located in South Providence. Dan shares his struggles as a small business owner during the pandemic and how this affected, not only his revenue, but also his day to day work. Dan also mentions the Linotype Daily in the documentary, a movement started by DWRI Letterpress that provides a daily update on world news, and how it played a crucial role in providing news for his audience during the pandemic. ‘20 & ME is a digital record that will live on to tell the story of a small business during the pandemic and also inspire others to start their own journey.
My projects aim is to document how the pandemic affected people financially, especially business owners who were the most vulnerable during these uncertain times. My goal is to meet with business owners locally and beyond and discuss the hardships they went through and capture their words through my lens. 20’ & Me will allow me to understand the hassle and burden that some owners had to go through to make ends meet for their families or themselves. I want to also capture an audio-recording or a video and pair it with the photographs that I will take that convey the story of the owner. I plan to shoot primarily Black & White. I want to have a consistent tone to all my photographs and be very selective in what I capture to express the project’s statement to the fullest.
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