The Doorstep portrait session for Porthcawl residents was launched during the first COVID lockdown on the 23rd of March 2020. A year has now passed, and we now know it was only the beginning.
The beginning of isolating, not seeing family and friends, businesses put under extreme pressure to survive. All this affecting us and loved ones in specific ways unique to our circumstances, but also having the common impact on wellbeing and all of our mental health.
The adjustment to the new ‘norm’ & daily routine of not leaving the house, and not being able to see loved one’s face to face are just a couple of common challenges we have all had to face.
One of my more personal challenges during lockdown was not being able to do what I love in the studio; Recording moments and memories with my Camera that people are able to share. I am extremely passionate about this and in ensuring that each individual love’s and are proud of the photo, artwork or design I create for them. Knowing that I have brought a little extra joy to people that they can display and share with family and friends for years to come is such an uplifting and rewarding feeling. As you can probably tell, I take a huge amount of pride in my work especially seeing the joy and value it brings to the people that commissioned the piece especially when they get to see how my vision marries to or exceeds their expectation.
Being unable to continue to work in my studio with people and to learn more about them in order to come up with that unique and perfect moment for them to cherish was very difficult, yet necessary. To adjust to this challenge started to take my camera with me on my local daily walk, where I looked to capture moments and memories to reflect back on such a strange and unique time period in the future. As I did so it became clear that not only did I want to document this time but a great many families did too. The consistent reasoning for this that I heard daily was people wanted to keep and build connections in whatever way they safely could. I felt, with my camera I had an opportunity to help keep families
and friends connected to each other in a safe and responsible manner during a time where face to face contact was no longer possible.
So after careful consideration and being guided by photography friend Birgitta Zoutman, I launched Doorstep portrait session for Porthcawl to raise money for the NHS.
Here are some photos from the community project I set up in Porthcawl. Click here.
To find out more about my shop front portraits please Click here.
To find out more about my School Door Step portraits please Click here.