A Still Life: My Pandemic Lens
Back in April, I attended a few free photography webinars hosted by the British Journal of Photography. In one of these, photographer Peter Funch was asked, what can Photographers do during a pandemic like this? What kind of work can we do? What were his suggestions for keeping up our craft? His response was to look around at your home, your life, and to photograph it.
It seemed a simplistic answer at first, and I’ll admit I even scowled a little bit while listening. Is that the best he could do? I thought. Then, over the course of weeks as our lives continued to be altered, I started to get out again with my camera. I reconsidered Funch’s suggestion, and although a nuisance at first, it is actually quite brilliant. There isn’t much else to do in the time apart, outside of giving up, or going out there and taking the same clichéd photos of empty parking lots and streets. And naturally, I do take photos of my life, but never with the same purposeful intent, I do with creative projects or work I do for clients. So, I made my life the project.
These many months later I have a growing collection. It is a rag-tag hodge-podge of photos, photos of random objects in my house, of my dogs, of the seasons and things I’ve seen on my walks, even my mother — for whom I am a primary caretaker.
I was trying to fashion this into something amazing and realize after much frustration, that it needs to stand as is. This has been a time of mismatched feelings, hum-drum uncertainty, cooped-up frustrations, and vague existential angst. It seems appropriate that the collection should seem disheveled. I hesitated at first to share all this, as it is very personal. I have also been very fortunate in this pandemic, unlike many others, and didn’t want to over-dramatize my experiences. Nevertheless, my experiences are valid.
I’ve called this growing collection “A Still Life”. Still life in art is often an arrangement of non-living objects, which some of these photos are. And I also like the deeper meaning of ‘still life. Over the last months, things have felt suspended and still, and yet restless. It is also like a search for calm, and stillness.
Even though things are opening up in our lives, the pandemic isn’t over and the mark it leaves is deep. I may or may not add to this collection, but for now, I’ll post some here as a first installment.
I am currently republishing content from my photography blog. This piece is modified from a post originally published at https://www.hannepearcephotography.ca on July 1, 2020.
