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Cities of Silence: Extraordinary Views of a Shutdown World

(teNeues)

Humans have long held a fascination with abandoned places; while this arguably reflects deeper feelings about the ephemerality of our own existence, the publishers of Cities of Silence find images of COVID-19 lockdown-affected urban environments calming and meditative.

In either case, the imagery of cities with nary a soul in sight is surreal and compelling (and represents quite a feat in the speed at which this volume was compiled). Photographers both amateur and professional contribute to the work, which shows the effects of the pandemic in more than 60 cities across multiple continents. As the introduction notes, however, complete silence does not reign everywhere (indeed, it will surprise nobody to see a few people milling around Shibuya Crossing). Breakout sections in the bilingual German-English volume offer insights into some of the positive and negative changes wrought by