A Photograph a Day Project during the Coronavirus Lockdown (Week 12)

For the past twelve weeks I have been taking or making a photograph a day to represent my activities and environment during the coronavirus lockdown – I began the project on 16 March – one week before the formal Government Lockdown.  We are now in an uncertain period as we seek to emerge from a period of dramatic change whilst at the same time feeling that time has somehow stood still.  I have decided to finish these posts with this week’s entry and in doing so have tried to capture some of the new reality for a small Cotswold village.

It is interesting, having just finished a post about Bazin’s view of reality, to think about all the talk about ‘a new reality’.  That life will somehow be different from what we knew previously.  Work patterns may be different, delivery methods of goods and services will be different and society,  the essence of our world will be different –  and the way we relate to our world may be different.  As I walked around the village, it resembled a ghost town.  Although, it was the village I remember, it was also fundamentally different.  There were few people, and whilst they were required to observe 2 metre social distancing most gave me more like a ten metre wide berth!  And as I looked in the shop windows, many still dressed the way they were the day when lockdown was announced, with just a hand-written note or a message on a chalkboard recording the reason for closure – they told a story of a time when everything changed.  In Heidegger’s term, our lives and society had fractured on 23 March 2020.

So my final set of images reflects an uncertain period.  We are meant to be emerging from lockdown but many of us are now too fearful to return to normal (or to the ‘new normal’) – whatever that means.  The Government did such a good job of painting the worse case scenario that now many feel the need to walk on the other side of the road.  The essence of our society and village – social interaction and engagement and that which lies behind it – has been lost, for the moment.  So here are my final images recording the moment as we start to emerge from lockdown.

Week 12 – Day 1 – Monday 1 June

Week 12 – Day 2 – Tuesday 2 June

Week 12 – Day 3 – Wednesday 3 June

Week 12 – Day 4 – Thursday 4 June

Week 12 – Day 5 – Friday 5 June

Week 12 – Day 6 – Saturday 6 June

Week 12 – Day 7 – Sunday 7 June