Furloughed Friendship

I started to take these portraits of my friends during the first UK lockdown in April and May 2020 as a way of expressing the loss of connection I felt with my friends and community. The glass between us suggested the distance imposed on us, a protection from illness of course, a mirror of the world that we look out onto but were, to varying extents, denied. Not being able to communicate with my subjects easily made for a far less collaborative way of working than I am used to but this only served to emphasise the feeling of separation the friendships only part fulfilled. Many a time the glass between us and the frame of the window made me feel more alone than ever: the feeling of solitude heightened when there was a strong reflection and I had to see past it to find my subject. My sitters could’t possibly anticipate what I was seeing. The act of photographing them with trees reflected in their stomachs, clouds in their heads or blossom on their faces, all unlicensed, became entrancing... empowering even. Perhaps, as is the case with this lockdown period which highlighted the various losses and gains in society and where many found positives as well experiencing much stress, the very act of photographing my friends in this way has been bitter sweet.