A picture is worth a 1000 words. We know this through the years of our own lives, how we smile and commence to explain the scene that accompanies a photo in our homes or phones. When your life is to visually document the world around us though, those 1000 words can easily multiply by the thousands…with side stories as well. Ian Reid (the legend in two games like Pee Wee Kirkland), has been making a name for himself in the skateboarder industry as well as the photo landscape as a creative camera rocker, just dropped one of the most important books of the year with A Few Days and Nights.
This tome is one that captures the times that were activated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the quarantine and the riots that defined the year 2020. “This series of photographs started on March 16, 2020, with daily bike rides with a good friend who worked too much,” says Reid in remembrance mode. “We didn’t think much of what was going on other then we finally had time off to relax and hang out.” That reality was starkly contrast to what he and the rest of society was about to experience, “I would take photos and sometimes videos of what was happening and the signs that said, ‘Sorry we are closed temporarily, we will reopen in 2 weeks.’” He continues with the inspiration behind the book’s title, “We brushed it off and said oh it’ll be ‘A few days & nights.’ Things will be normal again soon.”
Time is what makes this book so important, it showcases what we think about how long things will take and how we deal with the dealings of authority and the response of the people coming together to make change and voices heard. It also shows us how easy it is to abandon our surroundings and see how “bad places” are only what we make them. Reid’s raw and real style goes through all of his mediums, from film, photo, design and ideas to even his wild skateboarding style…it all comes through in A Few Days and Nights, produced by BEYOND THE STREETS and in conjunction with the exhibition New York Responds: The First Six Months at the Museum of the City of New York.
Support the project here at beyondthestreets.com and see the reflection of our very recent times illustrated.