Meeting the Neighbours during Isolation by Zoe Savitz

Zoe Savitz is a social documentary and portrait photographer from London focusing on identity and the environment, and looking at the relationships between people and the land around them. Her clients include The Telegraph and The Guardian. However, like Fran Monks, who I featured last week, Zoe has been occupying her time during lock down meeting and documenting people in lock down through her imagery (all at a safe distance, of course). The work has been featured on the BBC website: Meeting the Neighbours during Isolation. Her work is focused on a street in Dalston, east London.

Zoe spent around 20 minutes with each of her neighbours before taking the photograph.

This work reminds of Social Distance by Fran Monks, and also Dear Stranger (1998-2000) by Shuzuka Yokomizo. Savitz’s work differs from Monks in that she has taken the images in a traditional way, rather than using the power of the internet to enter people’s homes. She photographs people outside of their homes as well as some looking through the window, that have a similar feel to Yokomizo’s work. She also tries to include important things in people’s lives (such as a bicycle) and provides a sense of place in her framing of the photographs. Here are a selection of Zoe’s images: