We are two friends separated by an ocean and an entire country. Like most friends, we have things in common. We enjoy many of the same activities, interests, and things. We both like walking and hiking. We are both interested in photography. We both appreciate balconies.
The balcony is an intermediate space between inside and outside where people hang around and spy on the outside world from the safety of their own homes. Looking down from a balcony you can see and not be seen. Maybe you say you are smoking a cigarette, airing out the laundry, or drinking a cup of coffee, but a balcony is a place where you give in to your inner voyeur. From a balcony, we watch time pass. We mark the seasons, the time of day, the weather. A balcony is your own little piece of the sky.
Neither of us have balconies. In order to interact with the outside world we must leave our homes and go on a walk.
The coronavirus outbreak has made this difficult to do. We both entered confinement/quarantine in our respective countries and homes right around the same time. These restrictive yet necessary policies have prevented us from doing many of the things we enjoy doing in our free time. One day, during a video call, we discovered that we were coping with confinement in the same way. In order to preserve our sanity, we had both begun to take daily walks and to document this daily excursion with a single photograph. We decided to form a confinement alliance, documenting our time and our walks during quarantine. These daily walks have helped us form new appreciations for our neighborhoods as we rediscover them more intimately and this project unites us during a time of isolation.
Maybe one day we will have balconies.