Photographers In Lockdown
A few weeks ago, I lost my dad to this virus we are all fighting. In the days after his passing, I started poring over old photographs. My dad was in advertising, and we are a family who keeps clippings, we make albums after trips, we have boxes of old black and white prints. My husband was once burgled. He walked into his home after a weekend away, and the thieves came with a truck and loaded every single thing in his house into it, not even a single piece paper was left behind, everything gone. With it, every photograph on hard drives and camera and computers, except for what he had on his phone. His books, his architecture degree, pieces of furniture lovingly collected were gone, but of course it is the photographs that we know was discarded somewhere on a rubbish dump, those are most sorely missed. And now, as we sit at home in a confusing, anxious time, I thought it would be interesting to see what well known commercial photographers shot in the first few weeks in lockdown. I spoke to many photographers over the past two weeks while gathering these pics, and all of them shared their worries about future earnings, or the bleak out look we all share of the immediate future. Many photographers declined to be part of the story, most saying their anxiety is too severe to make pictures right now, others saying they are too busy with their children. If I have learnt anything from losing my parents, it is the importance of photographs, even the silly ones kept for decades in musty boxes become treasures and will speak of a time in history. Here is what a few intrepid photographers have done and their thoughts of the future.
Marc Dryden-Schofield
Titles : The death of photography [Top] / Isolation [Bottom]
Where are you spending lockdown?
I am spending lockdown at my house in Johannesburg. Luckily with my wife and son. I flew home from New York just as it was declared the USA Hotspot. On advice from my cousin [who is a leading doctor fighting this virus here in SA] we self quarantined for two weeks and then went into lockdown, so i have an extra two weeks on most people.
Were you able to do any paying jobs over lockdown period?
I have managed to get two “essential services" jobs, product shoots, sanitisers, etc...
The lockdown clients have been retail clients that need products for online purposes.
What do you think lies ahead for photographers in the following few months?
I think we still heading for a few tough weeks and months. There are a few of us trying to get the industry working again. By design and practice, photographers adhere to the social distancing rules, so we are hoping to get back to work as soon as possible.
What do you miss the most in lockdown?
I miss my folks who live in Limpopo, I have not seen them this year yet. I also miss driving!!! I always do location shoots for clients, so I am used to driving to Pretoria, Hartebeesport and outlying areas. So driving on the highways, music blaring and going a little too fast is what i miss.
Warren van Rensburg
Warren is spending lockdown at home in Jozi with his wife, Sanché, and sons, Ewan and Noah.
His client base are mostly ad agencies and he has not shot a job in this time. At this stage, he is missing a pint in the pub with his pals the most.
www.warrenvanrensburg.viewbook.com
Barry Downard
I’m at home, with my wife, Rose on our 5 acre smallholding in Dargle, KZN Midlands.
Having lived on the smallholding in a rural area for 29 years, we’re used to the isolation, and to often not leaving the property for 10 days at a time. I think it’s more about a sense of stifled freedom, and frankly, the ham-fisted way it’s all being run. But, we’re fortunate… we grow some of our own food, and trade with neighbours, so it’s more like the “simple life” that we originally came out here for.
I’ve been fortunate in getting 3 photo-illustration commissions for magazine covers through my London agent. Two for a regular US computer magazine client, and one for The Banker magazine [UK].
I also have some metalwork commissions [gates, weather vanes, and display stand units]. I’m also working on some architectural metalwork pieces… not finally commissioned yet, but concepts requested.
And also starting on pre-production work for art direction / production design for a feature film being planned to be shot in my area. I’ve already done the poster mockup to help with the presentations for funding [going well so far]. I am also starting a photography workshop program in the Midlands.
I get most of my illustration work through my agent in London [www.debutart.com]… so potentially any client worldwide. I’m also represented by a South African agency, The Art Squad.
What do you think awaits photographers for the next few months?
Wow! Who knows? I wish I could be positive and give you a glowing prognosis of “having to wear shades”. If anybody could predict when a recovery will come, how long it will take, and what it will look like, that person could become very wealthy. It’s all up in the air. I think the only thing to be doing is to be getting ready for even more competition than there was before. Use the time to rethink your work [technique, skills, business model] and evolve into something you never thought you could be. Even though my work is more illustration, I’ve been developing my photographic skills, I’ve set out on a path where I’m trying to craft a new visual language for myself.
Ryan Hing
Ryan is shooting with models in this time using FaceTime over cellphone calls. He says: "I am spending lockdown at home with my mother - Johannesburg South. I’m mostly in my bedroom. I was able to do two paid jobs over the lockdown period and aiming to do more as the response has been great. My clients are fashion retail brands and ad agencies in South Africa.
Just by the way - I am not a professional photographer out of lockdown, I have taken up these virtual shoots during this lockdown period. Having a production company has helped me to work with my team members very closely for the past three years and this has allowed me to take notes of all the extremely talented individuals which I book.
I am the creative and fashion director on all of my shoots and photography is a side passion which I love deeply. The future for photographers are going to be narrowed down to extremely small sets where only necessary crew members will be needed in order to execute the job.
I think that the quality of virtual shoots can be executed correctly in order to run digital campaigns [mainly on Instagram].
I believe in it, it is very limiting but it has its own taste and style due to the downfall of resolution quality. It feels a little more “organic” and “raw”.
I really, really miss being on set and creating with my fellow team members. We are so close and enjoy pushing the boundaries together!
Our time will come to meet and work again, I know this, for sure...
https://www.behance.net/ryanhing
Instagram - @evolve_keepchanging
Graham Bartholomew
I’m currently spending my lockdown in my apartment, feeling a little stir crazy, but its not too bad as I usually go through patches where I don’t work for months.
When lockdown started I lost all work coming in, I was supposed to shoot a magazine cover that weekend and a film for Netflix starting begining April was postponed. So It was a big shock, mostly because of the uncertainty of the future.
The majority of my work comes from international film and television production companies, so we rely heavily on international travel, so with all flights being grounded the work dried up, I have a few productions coming up as they were only postponed, so hopefully things will get back to normal once lockdown ends.
It’s going to be tough for photographers in the next year, the whole fashion industry is going through a massive change with international retail on the verge of collapse.
There is a lot hanging in the balance with events being cancelled for the year and we don’t know how much spending will be done once we get out of this.
I saw a lovely initiative in the UK where photographers are selling some of their prints to create a fund to help assistants, it would be something to look at here in SA.
For me I hope I get to continue to work on films as there is now a bigger demand for streaming content.
I mostly miss going out for long walks during the day to clear my head. Oh and I would kill for an ice cold beer.
Vanessa Lewis
I am spending lockdown at home with my family, Michael, Nina [10] and our pets Billy and Sparkles, just south of Paris. I did my last job the week before lockdown. I used the lockdown time to redesign my logo with a designer and website, which will be updated soon. I photographed some produce and food in my lounge studio.
I have no idea what will happen to photographers in their respective fields, I suspect things will slowly move back to normal, but budgets will be tight.
I missed the freedom to move around without restriction, in France we had to have a signed permission slip with us to move around and we were restricted to certain activities. For physical exercise and dog walking, this had to be within 1 km of our homes. Grateful that we could go outside. I also missed the interaction between people, strangers in the supermarkets, commenting on the price of eggs or whatever - people were really distant and serious, which is understandable.
Chris & Jolandie Wessels from CWPhotography
I’m spending lockdown at home with my family, my wife and business partner and co photographer, Jolandie and my two kids [9yo and 14 yo]. Pictures above of my wife and daughter.
So, we are two parents with 0% income.
I have only done one paying job in the first week of lockdown, it was a product shoot that came in at the last minute, nothing else at all. Business is dead, no one wants to invest in marketing and the financial uncertainty is keeping everyone from commissioning new work.
Our regular clients are mainly in the corporate sector.
In the coming months, as the lockdown and movement of people hopefully relax a little and as people begin to move back to their place of work, we’ll see work slowly picking back up again, but I do believe that it will be at least 8 - 14 months before photographers will be running at 100% of their normal workload. So lifestyle changes and keeping tight budgets will be important. In saying this, I do feel the market has been so saturated with photographers, many of these individuals will fall out of the market, going back to steady jobs and in kind also be selling off their gear, so there will be allot of cameras and gear available, but not to many buyers because of the financial strain that this will leave.
I am optimistic however and do feel that there will come a time, for the select few that has the means and are well established enough to carry on, will become extremely busy at the other end of this.
I miss being with Family and friends, having interaction with people face to face and just being out and about and living life. I’d love to plan for a few days away.
