Semester 3 - Images: Drive towards a new Topographics: Has Lockdown made this project possible?

One of the constants that has come up while researching the new topographical theme especially when doing image research in the contemporary sector, i.e Instagram, twitter etc has been its upsurge in popularity since the start of the covid19 lockdown.

I’m seeing more and more work of this type, people taking images of their immediate (and not so immediate) surroundings. There is a drive again to photograph the spaces that we see; something about them is making us look again at them. I contemplate why this was?

Has the lockdown effect given people more time to look as there is nowhere to be in a hurry?

Has the lack of people in a space freed us to look at these spaces without people in the way?

This strange time seems to have given the majority of us all fresh eyes to look around, see what is on our doorstep, to photograph and share all of this online.

I do wonder if it’s my research that is fuelling this or is it the fact I’ve followed the relevant hashtags and the algorithms have taken over or is it like cars, once you but one or somebody you know buys a certain model you start noticing them everywhere?

The familiarity is once again being re-established with the area that is local to you.

An conversation via Teams with an esteemed peer put me onto a thought process as well regarding the fact that what will this work look like in February? Then I thought what will this look like in 45 years? I haven’t chosen that date arbitrarily it’s the amount of time between the original NT and now (could maybe include 35 years as well with the redux show in 2009)

The images from this time period will look strange to outside eyes, like the images of our parents before we were born, a certain familiarity but not so, time will be kind to these images, this event will be our monumental.

Looking at the images that have come out of this time frame though, have you seen anything great? What are the truly remarkable images? We’ve had quite a few life changing events and those images have been produced through various means, most notably through video frames from mobile footage. My viewing of the images the one common factor is that the majority has been of portraiture, as if a portrait of a person will tell you the whole story as if it needs nothing more to add context. The time has been challenging to produce work in and it will be the main subject of thinking and research for a while, Covid19 will have a lasting effect on everyone’s life so I hope you stay safe from it and stay well.