Documentary Photographer in Surrey / Photographing an artist at work

I started a community project during lockdown with an aim to document my community during this unprecidented time we are passing though.

I was interested to find out how individuals and families spent time, and was pleasantly surprised that many people enjoyed the slower pace of life, spending time as a family, doing a bit of gardening, dog walking in the countryside, taking up new hobbies or re-visiting old ones.

Here my neighbour and artist, paints an oil portrait she was commissioned to do by another member of our community during lockdown. Painting is something she did all her life, and found a new passion for it in recent months. She did quite a few portraits for the people on our road, and I am so pleased that she agreed to do one of our daughter too. We will treasure it, not only as a memory of our daughter as a three year old, but also of the time when a virus really brought our community together.

Surrey Family Photographer / Photographs of life in Surrey during Covid-19 outbreak

Like many other self-employed people, my work has been greatly impacted by the current situation.

I found myself compelled to do something positive and to document life in my community during these unprecedented times. I came across an article about a New York photographer Stephen Lovekin who started photographing self isolation and messages people wanted to convey in his neighbourhood in New York. This inspired me to do something similar in my community.

Working as a Surrey family photographer, I set out to document how families spend their time during lockdown, photographing outside, from a safe distance, socially distancing and incorporating photography into my daily exercise, as per government guidelines.

Lockdown has been hard, especially for people living in cities where space is tight. I used to live in London but moved to the countryside a few years ago. The transition has been challenging at times, but I got to appreciate countryside living a lot more during the past couple of months. Although hard at times, there have been many aspects of lockdown that have been really nice for me and my family. This has been the case with a lot of neighbours who I chatted to while doing this project. Being together as a family, the slow down of busy schedules, having the time to potter around the house and garden, bake, taking up a new hobby or re-exploring an old interest. This project has been one of the most positive things I’ve done recently. It helped me connect with my community and meet a lot of lovely people up and down my road.

Below is a set of photos from my first project - my next door neighbours spending time as a family in their garden, reading books and playing in the sand pit with their one year old daughter.

I hope you enjoy the photos!