Things really look different in the town of Greece now that people have been told to stay home. The streets are empty — the parking lots have no cars.
A Greece photographer is documenting all of these moments so that when we look back in months or years from now, we won't forget what these days were like.
Joe Territo, Rochester Red Wings team photographer, would typically be taking shots of the players at spring training this time of year. But there was no spring training this year... and the Red Wings have postponed opening day at Frontier Field.
"Photographs are historical documents," said Territo.
So showing his town of Greece, in the days of COVID-19, Territo decided to pick up his camera and do what he did after 9/11 and embark on a new project.
"I'm using the town of Greece as a sample of what might be going on all around the world," Territo said.
What he found was empty, instead of busy, parking lots during lunchtime. Closed libraries, even at the book drops. Folks lined up in lunch distribution lines, masks becoming part of everyday life. And children, even his own grandson, learning the rules of social distancing.
Territo will be turning his pictures into a photo essay that will later go in his blog, on social media, and given to the Greece Historical Society.
"Let them have the pictures as a historical record of what was going on at this time in the town of Greece," he said.