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When the coronavirus locked down the world, Cassandra Grimbly and Riley Tench found themselves trapped on the cruise ships where they worked. Grimbly was quarantined alone in her room in the Atlantic, while Tench and his girlfriend got a nearly empty ship to themselves off the coast of Southeast Asia. For Grimbly, it was a nightmare. For Tench, it was a once in a lifetime experience. They documented their lives during weeks of uncertain isolation in a floating hotel.

George Floyd’s death at the hands of men sworn to serve and protect him was a literal and symbolic tragedy which has now reverberated around the world. As news of his death spread, sorrow, fatigue, and frustration filled the streets.

On June 14, 2017, an emergency call from London council housing Grenfell Tower reported a small fire on the fourth floor of the building. 36 minutes later the fire climbed to the top of the 24 story building. While residents called for help from within, family members and neighbors watched in horror from the street. 72 people died. Many recorded the event.

On October 1, 2017, 22,000 people gathered at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas. At 10:05 p.m. a shooter unleashed a hail of gunfire on the crowd. He fired for approximately 11 minutes, killing 58 people and injuring at least 869.

Australia’s 2019-2020 fire season was one of the most devastating in the history of the country. The fires scorched 46 millions acres, killing roughly 1.5 billion animals. As the fires spread, many thought they had time to escape. But winds spread the blazes faster than some had anticipated. Three thousand homes were burned, and 440 people died.

Since becoming president of the Philippines in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte has led an aggressive anti-drug campaign that human rights organizations estimate has killed 27,000 people. The government has been accused of offering police officers rewards to conduct extrajudicial killings and stage crime scenes.

In September 2017, Hurricane Irma tore through the Caribbean. Two weeks later, another Category 5 hurricane hit. With winds of up to 172 mph, Hurricane Maria caused about $96 billion in damage to the region. The hurricane killed an estimated 2,975 people in Puerto Rico alone.

On the morning of January 13 2018, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency sent a warning that a ballistic missile was on its way to the state. It was a mistake; but for 38 minutes, hundreds of thousands of people on the islands of Hawai’i desperately sought shelter and called their families to say goodbye. Some captured this terrifying hour on film.