A personal project that I carried out during the #lockdown by COVID 19.
On March 14th I started the #quarantine with my family. At first I took this as an opportunity to edit, select and retouch photos from the jobs and trips that I had left behind for not having enough time.
I caught up and I kept close and in contact with my network and industry . However, I was still feeling like I was missing something. I definitely needed to shoot with my camera and continue to capture moments. I was concerned on how to create something without breaking the security measures.
Days later, I ran into a neighbour who was going down the stairs, we greeted each other like any other day, but mentally I was thinking how far we should keep the distance without losing social courtesy.
I went back inside the house, took some measuring tape and measured the distance from my apartment door to the stairs.
It was 6.5 meters. I thought it was perfect!
There it was, a safe distance 3 times more than the advice. Luckily I did not have to leave the house and I had an idea! Now I had to get models and set it up.
At the beginning of the quarantine I organised a group chat with the neighbours who remained in the building to discuss everyday issues, so I told them about the project. Everyone accepted immediately
(Personally I think that this quarantine made us fall into a very strict routine with no distractions and plenty of time in our hands, so I could say that this project became sort of an event for everyone in the building to look forward to).
I wanted to portray each person, couple and family in the same spot. The setting was the hallway, right next to the stairs. Since my apartment is at the end of the hall, I did not need to cross with anyone, they just needed to go up or down to the second floor and move closer without trespassing the six point five meters line I marked for them
On Saturday morning with everyone in the building willing and excited to collaborate with me on this project. I finally set the the camera, mounted the lights and I prepared everything to start calling them apartment by apartment, family by family.
I told them that they have the freedom to pose and do whatever they wanted to express. The only condition was that we had to take two photos. One with a mask, gloves or whatever they had for their safety and another one where their faces aren’t covered.
These series of photographs were born from my need to continue taking photos.
6.5Mts
Family self portrait
Andres
Soren
Paul - Olivia - Lola
Isa
Isa - Jade
Matias
Ricardo
David - Valentin - Alexandra
Near Space Labs
Self-Portrait
