Selfie your pandemic memories at a Taiwanese studio: two photographers want people to record history with face masks and notes

Naomi Goddard felt compelled to document the coronavirus pandemic and invited people in Taipei to come to her studio to take portraits of themselves

Accompanying handwritten notes left by subjects reveal how the virus has upended lives, even in a place left relatively unscathed by the pandemic

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A photo project created by two documentary photographers is encouraging Taiwanese people, like Tina Liu (right) and her boyfriend Hugo Lin, to reflect on Covid-19 with studio selfies. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:15pm, 8 Aug 2020Updated: 8:35am, 17 Aug 2020

Inside a cramped studio, Jane Chen pulls a mask from her face, breathes in deeply and presses a remote camera shutter for an art project documenting how Taiwan has coped with the coronavirus.

“I want to tell everyone to treasure their every breath of fresh air,” the 23-year-old hospitality student said after the photo shoot.

Taiwan was one of the first places struck by the pandemic when it burst out of mainland China earlier this year. The island has been hailed as an example of how to stop the virus in its tracks, with just seven deaths and around 475 cases.

But while it has avoided the lockdowns seen elsewhere, everyday life has been transformed – in particular by the near-universal adoption of face masks.

Jane Chen breathes in deeply as she pulls off her mask away from her face. Photo: AFP

That was something British documentary photographer Naomi Goddard, who settled in Taiwan a year ago, wanted to explore.