A Still Life II — a pandemic photo journal continues
Back in March when the pandemic lockdowns began, I started a photography project to keep my spirits up. I promised myself to photograph something every day. It was my way of trying to capture and express the solitude and strangeness that life has become. I posted the first installment in July.
It has now been seven months of working and being mostly at home for me. Everyone’s years have been turned upside down, projects have been postponed, and vacations have been modified. Summer days have come and gone, some radiantly warm with promise, others bleak and dark. One night, I was reading a poem by Rumi that caused me to pause: “Let silence take you to the core of life”.
Without a doubt, if there is a reason why there has been so much unrest and upset this year around the world, it is because we are all looking inward, all together at the same time. Even I am tired of hearing it some days, but I want to believe we are undergoing some kind of transformation for the better in enduring these strange days. I have learned the value of the small everyday conversations with people, how digitally ‘seeing’ someone truly falls short of the real thing, how underrated hugs are, how things like long commutes or tasks we disliked are actually integrated parts of our lives that contribute to the meaningfulness of being.
Over these weeks and months, I’ve woken at dawn on Saturday mornings to go wander in ditches. I’ve driven out on country roads in search of sunsets or big wide-open skies. I’ve meandered around the streets of downtown and noted the difference and distances of this time.
In this second installment, there is again a lot of variety. I have put no restrictions on myself. This is project is rough around the edges and I am going to let it happen, as it happens.
I am currently republishing content from my photography blog. This piece is modified from a post originally published at https://www.hannepearcephotography.ca on October 28, 2020.
