‘One Person City’: Eerie photos of Shanghai during coronavirus

Photos

Nicoco is an American photographer who has been documenting the coronavirus outbreak in Shanghai in a photo series called “One Person City” (一个人城市 yīgè rén chéngshì). She shares some of her photos with us below. Follow her on Instagram @nicolattes.


My objective for this series was to capture the feeling of apocalyptic emptiness. Some of the photos may look as if they were captured at strange early-morning hours, but as a collection it seeks to reinforce there were no people, anywhere. I was politely asked not to photograph within certain malls, even though people are normally allowed to shoot inside. However, the complete lack of visitors made me too conspicuous. I did not want to make shop staff uncomfortable, and found it easier to shoot at more iconic tourist spots where I was still conspicuous but at least expected.