“Dancers in lockdown”
The British Photographic Assignment 2020: COVID-19, Entry “Project HOPE – Dancers in Lockdown”
Entry by Photographer Senem Peace
As a photographer, I wanted to do my small part in supporting the community in the current situation that we all are in. So, I decided to convert a future photography project of mine and fit it to the current climate: This is how Project HOPE came to life.
Project HOPE is a non profit photography project to create awareness in Mental Health again and raise donations for the Mental Health Foundation. On Project HOPE, I photograph dancers in lockdown. It is in a way, a documentary project, but I also want to create a positive perception to the situation we are in. There is always hope. There is always a joy in life. So I thought photographing dancers would fit perfectly in presenting this.
… Like everyone, I had lots of plans and hopes for 2020. But we all found ourselves in this unusually hard situation that we couldn’t of imagined. “Fear” suddenly became the main actor in our lives. Fear for our health, fear for our financial status, fear for the future… Fear for not being able to see our loved ones again. Besides the physical health issues the COVID-19 Pandemic has created, our mental health is also being threatened. Including the youngsters.
People already struggling with mental health issues, found themselves having to deal with this new stress of the lockdown. As a busines owner, I’m used to the mood rollercoaster, but while in the lockdown and the uncertainty for the future, it gets worse and hard to manage sometimes. This is the case for most of us at the moment.
On Project HOPE, I started photographing only local dancers based in Wilmslow, avoiding unessential travel according to the previous guidelines. After the ease of the rules this week, I expanded the project a little bit further outside of Wilmslow. Of course still keeping the social distance, acting with in the guidelines, not risking anyone, including my self and my family.
The new British Photographic Assignments, open to all British-based photographers and those of British nationality the world over is continuing to accept images until 1st of January 2021.
