In May, a Black man, George Floyd, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, setting off nationwide protests and clashes between demonstrators and police forces in many cities. Not since 1968 had unrest been so widespread across the nation. I set out to document as best I could the multiple crises of an extraordinary year, showing some of the kinetic moments of these conflicts, tragedies, and displays of purpose.

I’ve included images of daily life, as Americans struggled to cope with creative solutions and ordinary routines. I also photographed historic sites, because future generations may regard these events the way we do the past, often in contentious ways: as when signs commemorating the civil rights movement were vandalized by gunfire. Finally, I wanted to share some personal images of my family — because the experience of 2020 was near universal.
With the exception of a historical image, I made all the photographs from January 20, 2020 to January 21, 2021. The book also includes interviews with W. Ralph Eubanks, a writer and essayist whose work focuses on race, identity, and the culture and literature of the American South, and Michelle Goldberg, Pulitzer-winning columnist for The New York Times and author of several books on Christian nationalism, reproductive issues, and Indra Devi, the woman who helped bring yoga to the West.

It is hard to imagine any corner of the United States — or the world — that these events didn’t touch, directly or indirectly. This is my zine pretending to be a book, or book pretending to be a zine, of one year in my life and the life of the nation. — Alan Chin