NYTimes: Why is Dining Alone So Difficult

Thank you to Priya Krishna for writing the wonderful article ‘Why Dining Alone is So Difficult’ and for mentioning my book, DINING ALONE In the Company of Solitude. When I started my long-term project, over four decades ago, there had been very little attention to the topic.I started my project back in the early 1980’s, and would photograph my lone diner subjects against the backdrops of carefully paired restaurant interiors, deconstructing all of the noise to emphasize that which fell in the frame as well as that which we couldn’t see, outside of the frame. I’d ask my subjects to ignore my formal lighting and to just ‘act out’ how they felt when they dined alone.

With a fully designed book I was ready to show it to publishers in 2019-2020. One day, while dining alone, during the covid 19 pandemic, in one of the outside dining restaurant spaces, I had an ephiphany –I simply had to include something about the Covid pandemic which had heightened the experiences with isolation and solitude, swinging the barometer into a far darker side of solitude. I was so pleased to finally bring this book into the world. Thank you to Daylight-Books. Daylight-Books.

The Covid 19 Pandemic has ended and is at it’s five year anniversary mark. Though Covid still exists, we have found ways to manage it and to test for it, even with at home test kits. New guidelines, certainly in New York City, and other cities in America and around the world, have been established and many of the outdoor restaurant dining spaces have come down. Since I photographed many of these places, during the pandemic, I now feel that the imagery in Part II of my book has become historic.

Solitude is has become a more publicized topic. I feel that my work is part of the zeitgeist.