Stephanie Noritz was at home in Los Angeles when she took this photo; her subjects were in Toronto. By remotely controlling an iPhone XS in her aunt and uncle’s master bedroom using the CLOS app, she was able to shoot her Ecuadorian-Canadian family spending a Sunday of Covid lockdown together. Noritz’s two cousins Inti and Dania lay on the bed and pulled back the curtains respectively; their mother, Ybelia, sat in her chair doing needlework. The hands to the right of the frame belong to a third cousin, Jamila.
“My uncle Saul was holding the phone and I was directing him,” Noritz says. “I also gave the women direction, but generally I just let them do their own thing. At one point I asked Dania to let in more of the blue sky – as she did, Inti tilted her head back, and I caught this moment. It reminds me of an old painting, yet there are modern touches, like the AirPod in Inti’s ear.” Noritz brightened up the shadows in order to capture greater detail, but no filter was applied.
The photo was taken around Easter time, when Noritz would usually visit her family. “When I look at the photo, I see intimacy and beauty,” she says. “I appreciated how comfortable they were in front of me. It’s as if I was right there, on that warm, spring afternoon, sitting in the bedroom with them.”
