Jackson

‘Covid Coping’

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I based my body of work around the current circumstances with the global pandemic, Coronavirus/Covid-19. I decided to take this opportunity to document Harlow town, and how members of the public are coping with the implementation of a lockdown. I took a series of portraits of two individuals who are tolerating this period of isolation. One of the subjects took the time to use his creative mind to express his versatile and even “controversial” style of clothing, by making his own Coronavirus proof mask. I decided to experiment a bit by taking him on an editorial shoot with the product he designed. This gave me such a good opportunity to bond and adapt to my new camera, the ‘Mamiya RB67 PRO S’. The camera was perfect for headshot portraits of him wearing his mask, as the bellow focusing system allowed me to get a lot of nice close up shots, probably closer than I would’ve liked. I made use of some Ilford XP-2 B&W negative film as it can be processed the same as any other C-41 film, and I thought black and white would really highlight the rural and disturbing imagery on the mask, adding a lot of needed contrast and shadow. The second individual I had the privilege of documenting was almost a complete 180 from the first, this time I made use of Portra 400 Colour negative film. Throughout this shoot I made sure to keep to a consistency of soft toned portraits, vibrant with colours and real skin tones. I conducted this shoot to the best of my abilities as most of my portraiture work, and other bodies of work, usually revolve around gritty subjects rich with contrast and roughness. I wanted to explore a different style of portraiture with a much softer tone by collecting images of a female and her obsession of collecting different plant species. A lot of my work is very male dominated, and I really liked adding the touch of a woman to my portfolio as it enhances my photographic vision and shows that I can work in very versatile ways. During this shoot I wanted to introduce myself to filters, so I implemented a star filter into a lot of my images to soften some of the harsh contrast that the sun allows. I also really like the shines and stars that the filter creates as it reminds me of how majority of the planet are dealing with the pandemic, on social media. I also chose to make a comparison between Harlow’s nightlife, and how Coronavirus has left the streets isolated. I done a few night-time shoots to explore the emotion of isolation and being unaccompanied. I also followed up with this side of the project by taking a few images of an abandoned building that has been forgotten about, leaving for very relinquished looking imagery.