“Photography is demonstrably the most contemporary of art forms. It is the most vital, effective, and universal means of communication of facts and ideas between peoples and nations.” In the polarizing and tumultuous social climate of today, these words from Cornell Capa, photographer and founder of the International Center of Photography, are more relevant than ever. The museum’s latest exhibition, #ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis, is comprised of over one-thousand images submitted from sixty countries, which stand posted side-by-side, floor to ceiling, in a compelling visual timeline of this year’s turbulent events. The whole experience is at once informative, documentary, and touchingly personal, exposing nearly every step of humanity’s resilient trek through 2020.

I walked into ICP’s Lower East Side home last week, the day after it reopened to the public, bubbling with excitement and a tinge of trepidation. I had so missed the act of just being in a public space, and even more so the experience of strolling through a gallery. Any fears I had were quelled upon walking into the museum and seeing the space dotted with hand sanitizer dispensers and social distancing reminders.

Bold black letters in a vertical column on the wall spelled out MARCH—for so many, the beginning of an era of chaos and confusion—and so began a photographic retelling of this year’s story. The featured images range from playful to joyous to devastating and everything in between. A satiric still-life comprised of toilet paper rolls and dried spaghetti sits directly next to an image of a disheartened storeowner gazing out his window from behind a sign that reads “no more hand sanitizer.” On another wall, Michaelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” is parodied using hands in blue latex medical gloves just beneath a candid image of a man having an emotional breakdown on his windowsill.

The exhibition boasts an impressive variety of viewpoints on our shared experience of living through a global pandemic, national protests, and environmental disasters. A bride and groom hunch over a laptop, troubleshooting their own livestreamed quarantine wedding; young children in facemasks hold up homemade protest signs in support of Black lives; an alarming orange tints the skies above a burning American West Coast.

As I studied each image, the warm, tinkling soundtrack of Tyler Mitchell’s adjacent exhibition floating softly through the space, I felt a bittersweet sort of melancholy. The overwhelming walls of photos mimic the seemingly insurmountable tidal wave of issues we’ve been confronting in recent months. Some days more than others, the pillars of society seem to be crumbling, and it feels like the only thing we can count on is constant, uproarious flux. But in this collection of images lies a sense of comfort, too. The diversity and unity showcased in the photos ultimately outperforms any underlying apathy and fear. The exhibition feels like a proud, intrepid response to “when life gives you lemons…”

Above all, #ICPConcerned is an ode to the irrepressible human spirit, a solemn memorial to what we’ve lost in these painful global catastrophes, and a testament to the prevailing of art and beauty in an increasingly grim world