The British Photographic Assignment 2020: COVID-19, Entry “Fake Street Photography”

Entry by Photographer Chris Silk

I don’t think there’s any such thing as a boring place to photograph, just places where we might have to look harder, or more abstractly than in others. It was this thought that kick-started my lockdown “fake street photography” series.

As a street photographer, I wanted to change the perception of lockdown from one of restriction, to one of new opportunity. We might have more time on our hands than usual, and be spending more of it indoors – but that needn’t mean a lack of scope for experimentation.

If I couldn’t visit the streets, then I’d bring the streets to me. I had a few figures from my father’s model railway, and by using strong shafts of natural light and arranging various household objects into my frame, I tried to create the illusion of a cityscape in my own home. My intention was to provide a level of surreal trickery, which is what I often tried to do in real streets back in pre-lockdown days. But here, I hoped the viewer would – for a split second at least – not realise they were actually looking at a scene in miniature. Or that the guy in the photo should actually be waiting on the platform for a model train.

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 1^st of January 2021.