Beginning on March 17, 2020, the province of Ontario and many regions throughout Canada and the world functioned under a state of emergency. On March 23, 2020, the province implemented the closure of all non-essential businesses in Ontario for 14 days and the City of Toronto declared a state of emergency. This extraordinary act required people to stay home, shut their business doors, and alter their existence in a fundamental way.

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Over several years, Tallon has sought to capture this confounding cross-section of law, liberty and life. Primarily using a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II medium format camera, many of these public gatherings were captured in a subtle, documentary and reflective fashion. Listening to speeches and observing the attendees allowed him to visually capture moments in time that saw rising tensions and fundamental shifts in the relationship between the State and citizens. This series of photographs reference the work of a variety of practitioners from Jim Goldberg and Larry Towell to Evelyn Hofer and Garry Winogrand.