The Year Time Stopped | The Global Pandemic in Photos

Scopio Publishes the Only Photography Book of the Global Pandemic Told From the Viewpoint of Underrepresented Communities

From the founders of Scopio, the largest online library of authentic and original photographs, a stunning and unforgettable visual history that captures the world’s response to major events that defined 2020: the COVID pandemic and the sweeping movements for racial and social justice.

#1 new release in photography history and #1 new release in photography and exhibitions. This book has won the "mind" award for its intellectually stimulating approach to document history. Learn more here.

This book will change our perspective of the historical events that took place during the year 2020. We published it for the preservation of diverse human experiences through photographs. Support it to amplify the voices of marginalized communities.

About the Book

In 2020, the world experienced massive change. Millions of lives were ended—and millions more upended—by the Covid-19 pandemic. The shocking police killings of Black men and women gave rise to powerful social movements and widespread collective action to rectify centuries of injustice and racism in the United States and globally. Together, these three colossal events tested the resilience of the social fabric bringing us all together.

Attempting to illuminate and make sense of this new reality, photographers from around the world documented these transformational moments as they unfolded. Many of their images have been collected in a lushly photographed four-color compendium THE YEAR TIME STOPPED: The Global Pandemic in Photos (HarperOne; Hardcover; June 21, 2022) by Christina Hawatmeh and Nour Chamoun, the founders of Scopio, a community-based image sharing platform and marketplace. Carefully combing through their archive, the founders of Scopio curated these photographs to tell the story of the year 2020. It began with a collective sense of isolation and fear to eventually people coming together and protesting the social injustices that were uncovered later that year.

Representing artists from around the globe, THE YEAR TIME STOPPED seeks to empower us and give credence to the extraordinary circumstances that changed our world. The 200 images in this striking visual collection are indelible, impassioned, and unforgettable. Taken together, they are a singular testament to this unprecedented time.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Nour Chamoun as the cofounder and Creative Director of Scopio, leads the visual identity, image curation, product vision, and mission of the company. In 2020, she was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Christina Hawatmeh, as CEO of Scopio, overseas vision and growth. She was named Top Entrepreneurs to Follow by NY Finance.

Scopio is a community-based platform and marketplace where anyone can share images and stories from around the world. With the goal of elevating human stories told by people from underrepresented communities and regions, the vision of Scopio is to distribute the world’s images so they can make their place in history. The pair wants this book to serve as a historical record and time capsule for the year of the pandemic, so it can be shared with generations to come.

author photo by Marwan Shousher

Watch or Listen to the The Official Audio Visual Experience of 2020

We're excited to share with you the official audiovisual experience of "The Year Time Stopped". We have over 200+ new episodes from around the world coming soon on “The Authentic Photographer” podcast. We’ve teamed up with more than 100 rising photographers in over 100 cities to record their individual stories from 2020. Chapter titles include "Creativity Unleashed", "Love and Togetherness", "Signs of Change", "Distancing Together", "Raise Your Fist To..." and more from the book so many generation from now can walk in their shoes and experience what they've witnessed. This is a brave effort to curate and turn this historic book from 2020 into an audiovisual work of art that will live in history.