Pittsburgh in Crisis

Editor’s note: 2020 has been full of calamity and adversity and it’s only June. Whether the pandemic and unprecedented economic shutdown or the more recent protests that have erupted here and across the world, the ordeals have ushered in a year that’s been unrecognizable from any that preceded it.  Photographer John Beale has captured images that give a sense of the changes—during the height of coronavirus fears, around the Easter and Passover holidays, and during the recent bracing for protesting George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. In this photo essay, he has combined disparate images, all taken in the past three months, that portray a shut down city with hopes for a better future.