The Locked Down Book Is Now Available On Pre-order.
Since March 2020, when Boris Johnson locked down the entire nation of Great Britain in a desperate bid to hide 65 million people from Covid 19.
This is what happened:
All non essential businesses were forcibly closed and everyone went home. Some panicked and bought all the toilet rolls, some laid back and enjoyed their gardens because the sun came out and stayed out for almost the entire duration of lockdown. The streets were empty and only graced with the odd person exercising, going to the supermarket or were an essential worker.
I lost all of my booked commissioned work overnight so I spent my time at the beginning watching the television to learn all about this new disease. After some research I gathered that the British Government were aiming for herd immunity, so I researched that some more and became alarmed at how they control the spread of the virus through the schools and nurseries. With that knowledge, I pulled my daughter out of nursery immediately, two weeks before lockdown was announced.
Then it came…
…Lockdown
I could only react in the way I did, by making photographs of what I was witnessing. While my wife and older daughter were out working as key workers, my youngest daughter and I cycled around the town and stopping only to make photographs of some of the most bizarre scenes. I would share this work on Hinckley & Burbage Photographed and very soon I’d come up with the idea of making photographs of people that were locked in to their own homes.
I wondered where the humanity had gone, the community was hidden from view, yet building bigger online and more closely with their neighbours.
Mums, Dads, Brothers and Sisters, Uncles Aunties and Grandparents etc. we’re all separated by a deadly virus that they couldn’t see!
I made this film as a way of keeping the collection of photographs together and also showing my intentions and feelings through the use of curation and music.
Then I asked the community if they’d be happy to take part in a project where I make photographs of them through their windows at a social distance. Very quickly I realised that these photographs were difficult to make because of the reflections were hiding the people. I actually went out and bought a circular polarising filter in a bid to reduce the reflections but it didn’t work. So I studied the first few photographs in the project and felt that the reflections actually helped the pictures. I’d been blinded with a desire for perfection that I almost lost the perfection in the search. So from this point onwards, I made the reflections on purpose and looked at juxtaposing them with the people and families.
Darcy-Rose & Beatrice-May
Julie, Connor and Lee Price
Paul Sheridan
At the beginning of this project, I just made the work for the love of photography and for the need to create.
I had a distant idea of creating a book from the work but had no idea how much content I’d have or what it might look like. Towards the end of the project I’d really cemented my ideas and the book was going to happen.
Now I’ve proofed and approved the prototype and it’s in full production to the point I’m now taking pre-orders at a discounted price before they hit the shelves. You can get your copy of the book in my online shop here.
Here’s that radio interview…