Instructor Katie Lee, left, leads a hot core yoga fusion class in an empty parking lot in Houston. Participating in the class, from left, are Lauren Alleman, Lowell, and Wendy Rosenthal.
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Instructor Katie Lee, left, leads a hot core yoga fusion class in an empty parking lot in Houston. Participating in the class, from left, are Lauren Alleman, Lowell, and Wendy Rosenthal.
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Garden Oaks residents Beth and Jason Bernal throw a social-distancing birthday party for their son Cole, who turned 7 on April 13. On the right is their daughter Maya.
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Garden Oaks residents Beth and Jason Bernal throw a social-distancing birthday party for their son Cole, who turned 7 on April 13. On the right is their daughter Maya.
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At Eureka Heights Brew Company, Erin Camp takes an order, and Jason Conger delivers some brews.
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At Eureka Heights Brew Company, Erin Camp takes an order, and Jason Conger delivers some brews.
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Almost uniformly, people wear masks on the tram platform at the Dryden/TMC Station in Houston.
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From left, U.S. Representatives Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo help load supplies into a car on April 18. The Houston Food Bank teamed with the Houston Independent School District to conduct a mass food giveaway at NRG Stadium.
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From left, U.S. Representatives Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo help load supplies into a car on April 18. The Houston Food Bank teamed with the Houston Independent School District to conduct a mass food giveaway at NRG Stadium.
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Almost uniformly, people wear masks on the tram platform at the Dryden/TMC Station in Houston.
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Mounted police monitor social distancing on the Seymour Lieberman Exercise Trail in Memorial Park.
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Mounted police monitor social distancing on the Seymour Lieberman Exercise Trail in Memorial Park.
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A man ignores orders to avoid the parks and works out on the uneven bars in Memorial Park in early April.
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A man ignores orders to avoid the parks and works out on the uneven bars in Memorial Park in early April.
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Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has his temperature checked at a COVID-19 screening location at Delmar Stadium in Northwest Houston.
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Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has his temperature checked at a COVID-19 screening location at Delmar Stadium in Northwest Houston.
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U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee greets a National Guardsmen at a COVID-19 screening location at Delmar Stadium in Northwest Houston.
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U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee greets a National Guardsmen at a COVID-19 screening location at Delmar Stadium in Northwest Houston.
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Medical personnel swab Gracie List at a drive-through COVID-19 screening location at Delmar Stadium in Northwest Houston.
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Medical personnel swab Gracie List at a drive-through COVID-19 screening location at Delmar Stadium in Northwest Houston.
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Vanessa Alba hands out food at Riel Restaurant, which is providing food to restaurant workers affected by the COVID-19 closures. The restaurant is being funded through the The LEE Initiative.
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Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen leads a prayer during a Friday afternoon taping session on April 10 for the Easter Sunday program. Joining Osteen on stage are, from left, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, Houston Fire Department Chief Samual Peña, and Dr. Paul Osteen.
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Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen leads a prayer during a Friday afternoon taping session on April 10 for the Easter Sunday program. Joining Osteen on stage are, from left, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, Houston Fire Department Chief Samual Peña, and Dr. Paul Osteen.
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Lakewood Church employee Craig Johnson delivers a “Box of Hope,” full of grocery items, to Sylvia, a Lakewood Church parishioner on April 16.
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Lakewood Church’s almost 17,000 seats are eerily empty as Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen deliver their opening remarks onstage during the April 10 afternoon taping of their Easter Sunday programming.
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Lakewood Church’s almost 17,000 seats are eerily empty as Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen deliver their opening remarks onstage during the April 10 afternoon taping of their Easter Sunday programming.
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Lakewood Church employee Craig Johnson delivers a “Box of Hope,” full of grocery items, to Sylvia, a Lakewood Church parishioner on April 16.
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Josh Hudson, in the blue shirt, works at the H-E-B in Meyerland as a curbside delivery grocery picker and is shown here fulfilling an order.
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Josh Hudson, in the blue shirt, works at the H-E-B in Meyerland as a curbside delivery grocery picker and is shown here fulfilling an order.
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Kat Harris works in the Seafood Department at the H-E-B in Meyerland, where customers must stand six feet apart.
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Kat Harris works in the Seafood Department at the H-E-B in Meyerland, where customers must stand six feet apart.
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Jasmine and Jaden Wilmore pause for a photo while shopping at H-E-B in Meyerland.
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Jasmine and Jaden Wilmore pause for a photo while shopping at H-E-B in Meyerland.
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Cashier Cesar Garcia poses for a photo while standing behind a plexiglass shield at the H-E-B in Meyerland.
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Cashier Cesar Garcia poses for a photo while standing behind a plexiglass shield at the H-E-B in Meyerland.
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With the George Bush Intercontinental Airport terminal almost completely empty, Ernesto Andrade, a pilot for Mesa Airlines, was told he had to report to work on April 15, even though he didn’t know whether or not he’d be flying that day.
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With the George Bush Intercontinental Airport terminal almost completely empty, Ernesto Andrade, a pilot for Mesa Airlines, was told he had to report to work on April 15, even though he didn’t know whether or not he’d be flying that day.
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Nurse Latonya Johnson takes the temperature of ramp worker Peter Grunden as he enters the terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
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Nurse Latonya Johnson takes the temperature of ramp worker Peter Grunden as he enters the terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
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Brad Hunt, a supervisor in the cabin cleaning and janitorial services department of the World Service Cleaning Company, cleans an American Airlines ticketing counter keyboard at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
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Brad Hunt, a supervisor in the cabin cleaning and janitorial services department of the World Service Cleaning Company, cleans an American Airlines ticketing counter keyboard at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
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Texas Highway Patrol Sgt. Alton Tomlin briefs his officers on quarantine orders from Gov. Greg Abbot at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
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Texas Highway Patrol Sgt. Alton Tomlin briefs his officers on quarantine orders from Gov. Greg Abbot at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
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Vanessa Alba hands out food at Riel Restaurant, which is providing food to restaurant workers affected by the COVID-19 closures. The restaurant is being funded through the The LEE Initiative.
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A detail of a wall mural located on Emancipation Avenue between Leeland and Pierce streets by muralist @always_eating_cheesecake
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A detail of a wall mural located on Emancipation Avenue between Leeland and Pierce streets by muralist @always_eating_cheesecake
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Sylvia Blanco’s (@blanco_arte) mural pays respect to nurses during the Coronavirus crisis. The mural is near the corner of Leeland and Chartres streets in Houston.
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Sylvia Blanco’s (@blanco_arte) mural pays respect to nurses during the Coronavirus crisis. The mural is near the corner of Leeland and Chartres streets in Houston.
The first few weeks of 2020 were ones of celebration and new beginnings for the new decade. We encouraged Houstonians to make this year our best year yet.
Then rumors of a mysterious virus began to percolate into our hearts and minds. At first, we told y’all not to worry about it, that you should be more worried about the flu, but then COVID-19 began to pop up in different parts of the country. While we were concerned, we thought we were safe here.
Then the virus came to Houston.
In a seemingly rapid series of events, Mayor Sylvester Turner cancelled RodeoHouston and declared a public emergency on March 11, all bars and restaurants were closed on March 16, and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo issued a “stay home, work safe” order on March 24, effectively shutting down Houston. What began as just a handful of travel-related cases in the Houston-area has since jumped to more than 3,000 positive cases of COVID-19.
The 2020 we expected is not the 2020 we got. People are now hoarding toilet paper and barely leaving their homes. Houstonians are teaching themselves how to make face masks to wear when they do go out, and suddenly even the simplest thing in life, like taking a walk around your neighborhood has become essential. Life as we know it has changed.
But Houstonians are tough, and while the day-to-day manner of living may never look quite the same as it was pre-pandemic, here in the Bayou City, even in the midst of so much uncertainty and turmoil, photographer Daniel Kramer has captured how life still, sometimes cautiously, sometimes joyfully, sometimes in spite of all the odds, goes on. We wanted to show what he found on assignment for Houstonia this month as he has been chronicling the impact of the pandemic on our city.
A native Austinite, Catherine Wendlandt spent almost six years in the Midwest for college and graduate school at the University of Missouri (MIZ). While there, she talked about Texas and missed queso so much she had to come back.
In school, she worked as a city government reporter and page designer for the Columbia Missourian, a communications intern at a local jazz company, a food editor and later the managing editor at Vox Magazine, and a research assistant for the Association of Health Care Journalists. She's worked in Missouri, Dallas, and Barcelona, Spain, and interned for Houstonia in 2018, when she fell in love with everything about the city, except maybe the traffic and mosquitos.
When she's not at work, you can find Catherine curled up reading a good book, out exploring local parks, taking lots of sunset pictures, and trying to pet every dog she sees (in spite of the allergies).
