During online classes, I chose to continue living in my off-campus apartment on North. Knowing that I would be staying for the long haul, I enjoyed walking around campus, documenting the mass exodus of Cornellians for weeks after the announcement of virtual classes. I took photos every day, trying to capture the gravity of everyone’s departure — the newfound emptiness of campus and Ithaca writ large. 

Yet, with every photo I took, I found that the emptiness displayed could be easily explained away. That the photo was simply a fluke. Surely, people were lurking just outside the frame of the shot. 

After weeks of taking still photos, a new idea dawned on me. Given the online format of the Human issue, I had the opportunity to provide videos, rather than just images. So, I set about taking time lapses of the well-trafficked areas of Cornell’s campus. 

All of the time lapses displayed in this work were taken on May 2nd, 2020, the first “nice day” of the year in Ithaca. If students were still in Ithaca, I could only imagine the number of folks who would be walking around campus, lounging on the slope, chatting and eating on the quads. Yet, my time lapses tell a different story. Few — if any — people are on campus. Even the bright sun and summery weather failed to bring back the thousands who left Ithaca for safer places. 

While viewing these videos, I’d like to invite you to step onto campus. To look up and see the juxtaposition of blue sky and Morrill’s brick. To smell the fragrant blooms of the Bradford Pears on Ho Plaza. To feel the sharp blades of grass poking through a blanket on the Slope. To truly miss Cornell’s campus. 

And, I hope that these videos tell a larger story too: one that declares that this world is not quite how it should be.