Small Towns in Big Cities: Diary 2020-2021 was finished soon after the landmark of one million dead from COVID was observed at the Washington Monument in September 2021. Aaron Copland’s beautiful piano music, performed by Scott Dunn, was transcribed by the composer from his 1940 film score for America’s most performed play Our Town—a keenly observed meditation on mortality. A ceremonial procession of all the U.S. President’s official portraits from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC begins the diary. Presidents Trump & Biden don’t have them yet. Please note the framed flags at half-mast with each Presidential vacancy by death or assassination.

In 2020, bustling big city settings were hollowed out and replaced with small social groupings. Pots and pans were banged to salute heroic doctors, nurses and emergency workers at dusk. Black Lives Matter solidarity marches spontaneously swelled in communities big and small. Intimate and grand public gestures of remembrance, rebellion and disinformation grew exponentially. The photographic evidence of such contrasting human scale, and  the emotionally wrenching images, set in motion this visual music diary.