The British Photographic Assignment 2020: COVID-19, Entry “People I met on a walk one day during lockdown”

Entry by Photographer Justine Desmond

One sunny day during the lockdown I went for a walk with my camera and approached people, who caught my eye, and asked them if I could take their portrait and hear about their lockdown experiences.

My intention was to step outside of my comfort zone and talk to people who were complete strangers. I wanted to choose people whom I thought would make an interesting and beautiful portrait. 

As I walked along the beach I approached people fitted this criteria and asked politely if I could take a picture and talk to them briefly about lockdown. Almost everybody I asked agreed.

I made a decision to shoot full body portraits and to offer no direction to the subject unless I was asked specifically to do so. I wanted the portrait to be completely candid. So as the subject stopped I talked for a few seconds about my intention, then I postioned my self with the sun behind me and to one side and the subject naturally turned toward the camera. If a sunject asked ‘what do you want me to do’ my respose was simply ‘look at the camera’.

My camera was set to 100 iso at f 5.6 on Aperture Priority. I kept an eye to the shutter speed to make sure it was fast enough to freeze movement and when the natural light started to fade I stopped taking portraits.

I was very careful to maintain the integrity of the original images and make only very subtle enhancements in post-production using Lightroom.

I wanted to present a truth and authenticity in my work so people could be seen as they are and give their own individual accounts of their lockdown experience. 

I was suprised and encouraged by people’s warmth and willingness to participate in this project. I maintained a safe distance at all times and kept the conversations brief to comply with lockdown rules. 

I met some interesting people and enjoyed this experience hugely. If anyone out there has been thinking about photographing strangers then I would recommend you try. I took a friend with me (we kept a very safe 2m distance from each other) so she could record the conversations and take contact details which left me free to take pictures and talk to the subjects.

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.