Welcome to no. 18 in our series Poignant Pics where we've asked photo curators, educators, collectors, and makers to share a brief essay on a photo that has significantly changed the way they think or look at the world.

In this issue, Diana Nicholette Jeon, who recently joined One Twelve as an editor, talks about Russ Rowland’s image, Dinner for One, and how she felt when seeing it.

Life in “The New Normal”

As I woke this morning and opened up my Facebook timeline, I found this image of social commentary by Russ Rowland. Strangely, it merged three of my interests…dining, art, and my Facebook photographic community. I laughed. Alone. Out loud. I knew I had to write about it.

Life right now is filled with “dis-ease.” We awake to admonishments: Stay home! Stop the panic buying! Don’t think about your 401K! Stay 6-feet from others if you must go near them! People are losing jobs, and arts and other organizations are losing money - spend money to support them! The warnings and cries are everywhere, affecting every facet of our lives, as is the viral disease that is causing it. One of the first brushes with the Corona Virus in the US happened here in Hawai’i in mid-February as a Japanese tourist and his wife were diagnosed after arriving back home. Yet, to date, we have not had many cases of the virus here. But shelves here are empty of more than just toilet paper. Things are shipped here by boat, and it is a 6-week store order to shelf cycle. Because we locals know the drill from seasonal hurricane warning buying, it’s almost impossible to find shelf-stable goods, frozen veggies, or any sort of fresh meat or poultry. It’s been like this for over a week.

If you are like me, you are filled with anxiety - concerned about family and friends, worried about our future. Worried about money and paying the bills. Things that seemed impossibly distant just weeks ago now pepper every conversation. You speak about virus clustering in communities, recovery rates and death tolls as if you had thought of them every day of your life. In short, basically everything you used to call normal life is no longer.

What’s kept me sane? Baking and cooking…stocking my small freezer with homemade foods we can eat when we are no longer allowed to leave our home. Making art…always my place of refuge. And Facebook. Yes, I hear you laughing. “Facebook is keeping you sane?” Yes, it is. I live on a small island. My personal community has been forged via Facebook…my peers, my peeps. So it is there I go to find refuge with my tribe, to find some friendship and laughter amid the horrors in the news.

Some may find this image one-note, as it does use toilet paper, something so much in the news that the hunting and hoarding of it are now a national obsession. I expect Vegas to break odds on this any day now! But if it is one-note, it is a magnificent one…like the highest note of an operatic aria, held long by a master vocalist. Thank you, Russ Rowland, for making my day a little brighter today.

- Diana Nicholette Jeon

Russ Rowland is an award-winning professional photographer whose specialties include corporate and live events, theater, interiors, creative projects and more. His images have appeared in many publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek amongst others. Rowland’s personal work has been showcased in numerous juried shows and exhibitions at venues across the U.S. and abroad, including:
the Griffin Museum of Photography; the Museum of The City of New York; the Katonah Museum; the Center for Fine Art Photography; SOHO Photo Gallery; the New York Center for Photographic Arts; Umbrella Arts Gallery. His work can be seen at www.rrsnapshop.com.

Diana Nicholette Jeon is a Honolulu, HI based artist and an editor at One Twelve publications. She was awarded her MFA in Imaging and Digital Art from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County in 2006. Jeon's work has been extensively exhibited; venues include the Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, the Griffin Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Hawaii State Art Museum and the Museo de Lamego. Awards include four Hawaii SFCA Purchase Awards, the International Photo Awards, the 11th Julia Margaret Cameron award, the Pollux Award and the Mobile Photo Awards. Jeon’s art has been featured in a wide array of publications, including Artdocs, Gente di Fotografia, SHOTS Magazine, the Art Photo Index, and Lens Culture.