PHOTOGRAPHY|WRITING
Shooting London
Two photographs, one city
It’s been three years since COVID-19 made us rethink our relationship with loo roll. I still remember the initial confusion. Should we shake hands or not? Will we die if we do? That person coughing non-stop on the Tube, should we wrestle them to the ground and kick them out of the carriage? Or should we get off at the next stop and leg it as fast as possible?
The first photograph shows a deserted Long Acre, in Covent Garden, London’s West End. In those days I was teaching EFL( English as a Foreign Language) at an independent school in Waterloo. We were still allowed to go in and teach online. But students were told to stay behind in their residencies, or in the houses they shared with host families.
On this particular day, I finished work at lunchtime. I got on my bicycle and rode the short distance between Stamford Street and Long Acre. What greeted me in Covent Garden chilled me to the bones. This is an area in central London known for its liveliness. The souvenir-chasing tourists, the DMs-wearing outcasts, the ubiquitous homeless, the fun-seeking families, and many more tribes.
And this is just during the day.
I look at the photo now and think back to my first reaction on that day: we’re so fragile. We, humans…
