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Natalie Keyssar

Kristiana Nicole Bell attends a candlelight vigil at St Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church, where she was baptized later that evening, the night before Easter Sunday. The service was led in both English and Spanish by Father Paul Zohgby—who decided about eight years ago that it was important to learn Spanish so the could welcome and minister to the community’s growing Latino immigrant population. Zohgby told photographer Natalie Keyssar that he was elated to rejoin his congregation in person after spending eight days in the hospital with severe COVID-19.

The New Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama, held its first in-person service since the pandemic began on Easter Sunday. Pastor Clinton Johnson began and ended the service by encouraging his congregation to get vaccinated. “The virus will kill you; the vaccine won’t,” he said.

A judge inspects the colorful, floral outfits of female equestrians known as escaramuzas at a Mexican rodeo, or charreada, in Snelling, California. Teams of riders complete complex synchronized choreography on horseback while riding sidesaddle in ornate outfits meant to mimic the garb of women who fought in the Mexican Revolution. Their dresses are judged as carefully as their horsemanship, and any departure from strict standards can result in point deductions.

A young girl sits by the fountain in Plaza Altamira during Venezeula’s Carnival. “I think back to this afternoon often, missing my community there, missing the afternoon light in Caracas, missing these last days of walking and breathing through crowds of people, without fear or thought of contagion,” says photographer Natalie Keyssar. “A couple of weeks after I took this photo, I flew home to the U.S. to be close to my family during the pandemic, but when I imagine life after the pandemic, I know the first place I’ll go back to is Caracas.”

A crowd celebrates Joe Biden’s imminent victory over Donald Trump in the presidential election at a “count the vote” event in Philadelphia on Election Night. (From: The election is over. See photos of America’s divided reaction)

In Queens, New York, a community refrigerator allows people to donate or pick up food. An early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, the borough has seen widespread unemployment and high rates of food insecurity. (From: Queens, one of the first COVID-19 epicenters, faces a new crisis: hunger)

Following Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election, Cooper Sherwin and Joan Taylor share a kiss while holding a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence. Sherwin and Taylor canvassed for the president-elect in Pennsylvania.

On election night, local Democrats held a small watch party in Rodano’s Bar in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. As attendees checked their phones to watch the results trickle in, it became clear that the race would be close, and the results would not be known right away.

Zoe Bishop, 27 of South Philadelphia, (in red) danced at the celebratory count the vote event. As the vote count continued inside the Pennsylvania Convention Centre, with Joe Biden's lead beginning to grow, the mood outside shifted from rebellious to celebratory. All afternoon and into the evening, a block full of people danced and sang to cheer on what many saw as an imminent declaration of victory over Donald Trump. Across the street, the showing of Trump supporters dwindled by early evening to a handful of people.

Cooper Sherwin and Joan Taylor, who both canvassed for Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, kiss as Sherwin holds a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence. On November 7, the Associated Press and other news networks reported that Biden won the state, making him the next U.S. president.