10 MAY 2020 Hi all. My name is Emily Nathan. I am based in Oakland, CA and have lived in the Bay since 1998 when I started my professional photography career. Around 9 years ago I started a side project, which kind of hijacked my photo work life; it’s a travel blog and now a mashup of a travel publisher, Instagram and IRL travel- and photography-focused community, a photo agency and a sometimes real-life adventure travel company—all under the name of Tiny Atlas or Tiny Atlas Quarterly.

Well, for the moment, all of actual travel and professional photography are both on hold. Right when lockdown started I was actually finishing my first draft that was due to my editor at Ten Speed Press for my second book for Tiny Atlas with Penguin Random House. I just received edits from my editor the other day and now need to turn around written revisions to the text in the next couple weeks. In addition, I started a lockdown photo series on Tiny Atlas and I have kept up my work on our #mytinyatlas community online.

Now this whole lockdown experience has taken another dramatic turn in all of our lives and also for the Tiny Atlas community with the overwhelming national and global response to the murder of George Floyd and the justice movement for racial equality of Black Lives Matter.

On the Tiny Atlas feed, I am including lots of coverage of the protests on our feed and Story because of the worldwide urgency and importance of the movement. Social justice is not our theme generally—it’s travel. But if we live in a totally unjust world, travel is just not as relevant. I am focusing coverage from the movement on Tiny Atlas from Black photographers. So many creatives and art buyers are sharing the work of Black creatives and I am thankful to now have such an expanded list of personal new favorite Black photographers (so much talent!).

I am also a mom of a 9 year old who normally goes to public school and camp in the summer—so now I am a fake 3rd grade teacher. When I came up with the lockdown project for Tiny Atlas, I also started a daily photo practice for myself that usually just involves taking myself on a walk or hike where I stop to take pictures of whatever is inspiring me. Lots of visuals for you on my personal IG @ernathan and @tinyatlasquarterly in the lockdown series.

I wrote a little piece about all the flowers everyone seems to be taking pictures of too and that is here.

A few times I have gone on my walks with my sister or a friend at a social distance, but usually I use the walk as a mechanism to get my kiddo out of the house. I started some online exercise classes but they kind of bummed me out, so I am more focused on hiking. Luckily my parents live pretty close to us. And even better, they have a pool, so that has been a major escape.

I think everyone is going through these Covid cycles where you can focus on work for a while and then feel the need to really focus on the news about the pandemic for a day. Also, I think everyone needs to let go at whatever interval their minds are calling for, and just sort of lose it and mourn the loss of the world we knew or had. I have gotten really upset a few times over the past 9 weeks of this for sure, and losing it definitely helps with moving forward and feeling ok the following day or week or month.

Any countries with good leadership that are getting out of this crisis are inspiring me. In terms of personally, anyone who I am finding humor from is a big help. My husband has gone full tilt into cooking and baking sourdough, and that has been an inspiration and a very delicious surprise. Salt Fat Acid Heat, Dining In and the sourdough of course now that he is a true foodie.

People and hugs. I am a social person, so being stuck home is hard. Both my son and my husband are naturally introverts, so I think it is a bit easier for them in that regard, but they are pretty much over the isolation too at this point. And traveling of course! I am a traveler so being stuck home indefinitely is hard. Even traveling locally will really help my mindset.

Work is starting back up in the photo and production worlds, which is a relief. California is opening up, but since cases of Covid are on the rise again, now the fear is that we will need to go back into a deeper lockdown if that gets out of control. I’m wishing everyone reading this safety and health.

Oh thank you, I wasn’t expecting to see this question. Hmm, well Tiny Atlas is working with brands on collaborations as a way to get funds to some of the artists (and our team) who are now all out of work, so we are actively looking for brand collaborations and partners who need to connect with our incredible distributed global talent pool of image makers.