PEOPLE, ISSU ES & CU R IOSITIES of MODERN LIFE
5PEOPLE, ISSUES & CU R IOSITIESof MODERN LIFE
5Smart shot
The best pictures
taken on phones
Jessica Auer
The Moments That Keep
Us Grounded, 2020
Shot on iPhone 6
Pre-pandemic, Canadian
Jessica Auer split her
time between Montr eal
and east Iceland.
She was living in the
former when the city
announced its fi rst
lockdown in March
2020, and so she and
her boyfriend, Zuhaitz,
returned to Iceland. It’s
here that their kitchen
window faces a fj ord
25km long and 1km
wide. “It appears like
a wide river, but it’s
actually the sea,” Auer
says. “ A kilometre across
sits this mountain.
It changes with the
seasons and the light.
This photograph was
taken at sunset.”
The binoculars are for
guests, who gravitate
towards them when
v i s i t i n g. “ S h i p s p a s s
by, the birdlife is varied
and porpoise appear ,”
Auer says. “Once a year,
if we’re lucky, we see
humpback whales.”
I n I c e l a n d , t h e c o u p l e
began isolation, while
Auer continued to
work remotely for her
teaching job in Montreal,
and took up yoga.
“I took this photo
spontaneously on my
iPhone 6 that fi rst week
in confi nement, as
Zuhaitz looked out. There
i s n o e d i t i n g. I t w a s
a beautiful moment at
a very diffi cult time .”
Grace Holliday