JUNE (^) | FROM THE EDITOR
Touch was an early
casualty of the COVID-
pandemic. People sharply
curtailed contact—especially
indoors. But as cases fell
and vaccinations rose, public
gatherings picked up. At a
school last August in Andria,
Italy, students met outside
in small groups to play
“a game where they had to
identify classmates by touch
alone,” says photographer
Lynn Johnson.
WE EXPERIENCE THE WORLD through
our senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell,
and taste.
Among the five, the sense of touch is
singularly important, a growing body
of research confirms. As contributing
writer Cynthia Gorney explains in this
month’s cover story, “Human beings
require the physical presence of oth-
ers, the comforting touch of others, in
order to stay healthy.”
At the School for Creativity in
Andria, Italy, students learn that lesson
at an early age. “The culture of touch
in that school is daily,” says longtime
National Geographic photographer
Lynn Johnson. “Moment by moment.
It’s very physical. They’re always hug-
ging and kissing.” In the photo above,
the children play a game in which a
blindfolded student tries to recognize
a classmate just by touch. Invariably
they got it right, Johnson says.
This cover story assignment required
Johnson to show the power of touch
with her images. To do that, she told me,
she “went on a mission: to try to look for
situations, for people, for whom touch
is a critical part of their lives—their sur-
vival, their orientation in life.”
That mission took her to Margaret
Malarney and her family in Chagrin
Falls, Ohio. (See page 68.) “I met Marga-
ret when she was minimally conscious.
I didn’t see any response on her face,”
Johnson says. But over a series of visits
spanning seven months, Johnson wit-
nessed “the way the family physically
loved her back to life. We don’t know the
science behind it; we don’t know why.”
And yet, Johnson says, “we can believe
that touch has such value.”
Thank you for reading National
Geographic.
David Brindley
Interim Editor in Chief
Connections
That Keep Us Healthy
THE POWER
OF TOUCH
PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON
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