The Picturing Lockdown Collection was created during April and May 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. During seven days the public were asked to submit photographs that they felt best represented their experiences of lockdown in England, and from these submissions one hundred representing all the different geographic regions were chosen to be archived with Historic England. Alongside these images, ten artists were commissioned to produce their own images over the course of five days, representing their lockdown experience. These were supplemented with images by Historic England’s own photographers. Together, the Picturing Lockdown collection forms a permanent visual record of this unusual time in history.
This photograph is one of fifty taken by Historic England's staff photographers. It was taken between 21.15 and 22.15 on 5th May 2020, and is one of a group of five entitled 'Moonlit and Twilight'. The photographer has written the following text to describe these images: "During the Covid-19 outbreak of 2020, an almost unknown silence descended over the UK. Few aeroplanes, limited vehicular noise and lockdown itself brought a distilled, hushed stillness. The sounds of nature could be heard, wind rustling through trees and grass, spring birdsong lyrical and uncontested. This was accentuated at twilight where a near silence took hold. Households behind closed curtains, contained, locked down, just as they had been by day. These window portraits marked the end of another day.
Note on photgraphs: these photographs are lit by moonlight but with a slight underexposure to allow the warmness of the window light to feature. I visited these five sites prior to any images being made assessing the shooting time for each subject, be they facing east, west, etc. The exposures are calculated to hold the sky and window but to also allow the moonlight to work its delicate illumination."
This is part of the Sub Series: HEC01/036/03 Picturing Lockdown Collection - Historic England Photographers' Submissions; within the Series: HEC01/036 Picturing Lockdown Collection; within the Collection: HEC01 Historic England
© Historic England Archive
Photographer: Davies, James O: Historic England
House, Health And Welfare
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