Daniel Shular

Photojournalist

danielshular.com

Keep Your Distance

Follow Hire

Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Nationality: American

Biography: Email: danielshular@gmail.com Phone: 636-887-5037 Daniel Shular is a master's candidate for the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Shular has a BFA in Photography from the University of Missouri - St. Louis... MORE

Focus: Photographer, Photojournalist, Journalist, Videographer, Travel, Video Editor, Environment, Documentary, Multimedia, News, Video, Film, Photo Editor, Photography, Domestic, Foreign, Portraiture, International News, Student, Staff, Intern, Freelance, Humanitarian, Assignments, Human Rights, Multimedia Journalist, Newspapers, News Reporter, Sports Journalism, Political Journalism, Digital Journalism, Print Journalism, War, International Stories, Still Photographer, US Politics, Digital Media, Reportage

Keep Your Distance is a personal photo essay that shows the experience of social distancing, being an essential worker, and studying in a college town during a pandemic. It consists of photos that I made while working for the Columbia Missourian and in my free time. I thought the pandemic was only going in interrupt our lives for a few weeks, maybe there would be an extended spring break then things would return to normal. Now, we are facing a death toll nearing a half million in the United States from the coronavirus, and the end of this seems out of reach.

Isolation is nothing new to me. I grew up in rural Missouri under a fundamentalist religion that indoctrinated me into having fears of the outside world, the apocalypse was always right around the corner, being around my peers would corrupt me, and you would get diseases from having physical contact with another person. These past experiences influence my frustration in feeling stagnant and have been a source of mental health issues as an adult. To combat these effects as the isolation drags on, I spend my time taking photos of a parking garage that became a hangout spot, cycling, and being as social as possible with my colleagues at the Missourian and friends in my graduate cohort.

As the stay-in-place orders went on for weeks protests started to spring up around the state. I volunteered to cover them or go with a group to take photographs because of my past experiences before I started graduate school where I would sometimes work in hostile environments as a freelancer. Even though the current situation is unique, these events have made me more prepared to work through this pandemic safely. Many people I have encountered hold many of the same religious beliefs I had growing up. I see my former self in this movement that wants to be called personal liberty.

It's now 2021, this is the new normal. The death rate is higher now in the United States than it's ever been in the past year. There is also something that feels like a glimmer of hope, two highly effective vaccines are being distributed, shelves are full, and spaces are reopening. Two things linger in my mind is this the beginning of the end, and if so, will everyone I know live to see it.