COVID-19 Survivor Diaries

Documenting our shared experience of the global COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of people who survived by chronicling their journeys with portraits and first person accounts.

COVID-19 Survivor Diaries is a personal passion project started by Morgana Wingard, a humanitarian photographer and videographer, inspired by her time living through the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. There she learned that survivors stories can provide vital health information, dispel myths, offer truths, reduce stigma, and educate first responders through the voices of people that communities know and trust. To those watching from the outside, they bring humanity to an otherwise ominous disease. Just as importantly, they offer hope to all. After moving back to Brooklyn, New York she found herself in the middle of another outbreak and decided to start this personal project to chronicle and share the stories of COVID-19 survivors. She started by interviewing and photographing COVID-19 survivors in the New York metro area and plans to photograph survivors beyond in the future. She’s also working with other photographers, like Josh Estey, to photograph and interview survivors in other cities.

We are currently sharing these stories online and through social media. Sometimes we pitch or provide them to media outlets. Ultimately, we hope to create a physical experience for people to reflect on the faces and stories of those who survived through an exhibit and/or a book.

Other Ways to Help:

• If you’re a photographer and interested in getting involved, email survivors@namuhmedia.com

• Follow social media accounts

About the Founders:

Morgana and her husband, Jaco, started COVID-19 Survivor Diaries when COVID-19 started spreading in their home, New York City. Together, with their cat Togo, they are individually interviewing and photographing COVID-19 survivors.

Morgana is a producer, photographer, videographer, and the founder of Namuh Media — a woman-owned production company based in Brooklyn, New York that produces social documentaries and branded films with local, diverse talent around the world. Her clients include UNICEF, CARE, USAID, and The Barack Obama Foundation whom she is currently partnering with to share stories of the challenges girls around the world face to get an education.

Jaco is a helicopter pilot by trade who moonlights as a cameraman in the sky and on the ground.

Michelle LukezicCovid-19 Stories, Photography, Journalism