THE PAUSE

AS THE COUNTRY RETREATED TO PHYSICAL DISTANCING IN THE FACE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, OUR INTERACTIONS WITH GEOGRAPHY ALTERED DRAMATICALLY. A COLLECTION OF IMAGES THAT CAPTURED HOW CANADIAN LIFE CHANGED.

- ALEXANDRA POPE

MICHELLE VALBERG WAS ON VANCOUVER ISLAND photographing coastal sea wolves and the annual herring run when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic this past March.

The disease caused by the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019 had been in Canada since late January, but had at first seemed to be an obscure threat affecting mainly international travelers. On March 13, Valberg, a Canadian Geographic photographer-in-residence, boarded a flight back to the mainland — and emerged into a reality very different from the lush, colorful wilderness she had left behind.

“I remember landing in Vancouver and feeling the ominous spirit around and how quiet people were,” she says. “It felt like I stepped into a black and white world.”

That same day, Quebec became the first province in the country to declare a state of emergency related to the pandemic. Within a week, every province and territory had followed suit, each implementing a range of directives aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. Schools, restaurants, bars, malls, movie theatres, and other public gathering places were closed. Concerts and sporting events were canceled. Canadians abroad were urged to come home as quickly as possible, as the world’s borders slammed shut.

Valberg made it home to Ottawa, completed a 14-day quarantine, then, like millions of others across Canada and around the planet, she entered a period of voluntary self-isolation from family and friends.