Photographer Lucia Buricelli lives alone in a studio apartment in Milan. On March 9, Italy became the first democratic country since the Second World War to impose a nationwide lockdown, extending measures that had already been in place in northern Italy since a day earlier. Buricelli — like most of her 62 million fellow Italians — has stayed home to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Italy’s nationwide quarantine has since become a precedent for other countries, including Spain and France. Buricelli, a Venice native, has hardly left her home for over a week. (The lockdown allows exceptions for necessities — more food, medicine, or work — if the person has a certified note.)

“It’s not fun for me, but if you have to do it, you do it,” Buricell says, admitting she is bored all by herself. The 25-year-old goes out once a week to buy groceries. Prior to the lockdown, she went to work every day, went out in the evenings and enjoyed making pictures outside. But she reasons that if the doctors can do what they’re doing, the least she can do is stay home and try to help contain the virus.
“In the beginning, everybody took it a bit lightly,” she says. “That’s why we have so many cases.”