My intention as a photographer is to connect the viewer with people and places they may not know. This series of photographs focuses on my neighborhood in Chicago. Uptown is a diverse community with a large population of first- and second-generation Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants. While non-essential businesses are closed, business owners are finding alternative methods of paying their workers and making rent. Here, a tailor at Erfan Mohammadi’s dry-cleaning business makes affordable masks to sell to the local community.

We are all struggling, but people’s desire to help one another rises to the surface even in the face of crisis and uncertainty.