In the UK we’ve been in lockdown for more than two months. I haven’t done an in-person portrait session since mid March. I hope that there will be an opportunity to get back to that soon. In the meantime, I have been really enjoying connecting with people for portraits via Zoom.
I was commissioned by AreWeEurope magazine to photograph 10 Europeans during lockdown. It was fascinating to check-in with people in Spain, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Italy and Sweden and also to talk to Europeans who live in the UK about their different experiences of staying a home during the pandemic.
I have also been working with the University of Huddersfield on a research project which is exploring the impact of lockdown and home education on mothers. I am making Zoom portraits of all the women who are taking part across the UK. I have loved hearing about their experiences and the challenges faced by those juggling home working with home schooling responsibilities. I have also been struck by the wide range of views on whether or not children should be returning to school at this time and also the reality of whether there is even an opportunity to attend school in some areas.
As I mentioned in my previous blog, these Zoom portraits have to be much more of a collaboration than in-person portraits. I have to communicate my wishes really clearly so that the subjects can place the laptop or other device where I want it. Sometimes there is a willing assistant in the house to hold the device. Bringing a third person into the process poses new challenges. In one case the assistant was a photographer themselves, and found it hard to let go of their own artistic vision in order to frame the picture as I wanted. In another case, I had to direct all my instructions to the subject via the headset worn by the person holding the phone. Interesting!
The pictures include much more of the subject’s environment than my previous works, but I have been really enjoying that aspect of the results. I definitely cannot be a perfectionist and sometimes the process works much better than others.
It is amazing to be able to pop up in people’s living rooms around the world via my computer. It really is fantastic to talk to so many different people with a wide range of perspectives. But I have noticed that I do miss the full sensory experience of travelling to and turning up at a new location. I look forward to doing that again.
For now, I’m delighted to have a commission for another Zoom series of portraits coming up, this time of a local community group in Oxford.
Post COVID19 I hope that I will be able to return to in-person portrait shoots, while still being able to connect with people around the world via video chat, and improve on how I capture portraits in that way.
