Jul 13, 2021

At the peak of early pandemic lockdown, Jeremy Cohen, a photographer and videographer who works frequently with brands, captured the attention of the homebound hoards scrolling through Instagram when he posted a series of photos of his neighbors out on their rooftops. Just like the rest of us, they were only trying to stay sane and safely escape the confines of their quarters. There they were, on scattered Brooklyn rooftops, exercising, reading, flying kites, making TikTok videos, and, you know, playing the double-bass cello. That last image landed on the cover of New York Magazine. But that was only the first act of Cohen’s pandemic-era story.

Another time when shooting rooftop Brooklynites, he noticed a nearby woman and was intrigued. He waved; she waved back. He taped a note with his phone number and “text me?” to a drone and flew it to her. She—Tori Cignarella—did indeed text back. He ended up making a video series out of their quarantine courtship, which went viral: The two went on a socially-distanced date, with him inside a giant inflatable beach ball, à la John Travolta as “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.” It was just the sort of adorkable antidote our darkest days required, and got both Cohen and Cignarella influencer gigs (with MeUndies and Snap).

The rooftop series was an offshoot of Cohen’s other passion project, “Today I Photographed,” in which he has taken a photo of a stranger every single day for two years. And he’s used his online fame to launch a podcast, “Ask (Not) Me Anything!,”where he (and his listeners) interview  interesting New Yorkers. He recently had Cignarella on as a guest and revealed their relationship status. (Spoiler: They gave it a shot but aren’t dating.)