Let’s face it, the slow drag of the ongoing global pandemic has affected everyone in different ways. And while many of us have found new hobbies or new life to existing hobbies, there is something about coming together with the share a love of photography and share personal stories about how COVID has affected their photography. And that is exactly what the recently Kickstarter to publish a new photobook hopes to share!
”Fundamentally, this book is a photobook. It’s produced by a photography blog, curated and compiled by a hobbyist photographer, and contains the photos and words of people who consider themselves to be photographers. But somehow I think the book is greater than the sum of these parts. To both myself and Holly, it feels like a document of a moment in human history, and therefore is not just relevant to other photographers, but to anyone who is interested in how we as human beings responded to such difficult times.”
Hamish Gill – 35mmc
First announced in April 2021, British photographer Holly Gilman, with the help of Hamish Gill of 35mmc set out to gather a diverse group of photographers to put together a photo book about how the COVID pandemic has affected their photographer. They wanted to share both the good and the bad. Holly put out the call and gathered a group of 49 different photographers from around the world. And this is a diverse group of talented photographers, many of whom I admire and respect both as people and the work they produce. Every race, status, gender, and sexual orientation are represented in this amazing book.
The title of the Book “Photography through the Pandemic” features images and stories from many different photographers each of who have had a different response to the COVID Pandemic. And while the stories and the effects of the pandemic have been different each is bound together by two common elements. The first is the raw human response and the second, being the love of analogue photography. The book features everything from traditional film photography, alternative process and even wet plate! While primarily a photo book it is so much more, it’s about a shared experience.
But this book isn’t just about photography, it is about shared experience, the different ways we as humans respond to crises, and how we learn to cope in our own individual ways. It is also about the power of creativity as a coping mechanism and could perhaps even be seen as an important document that – through words and pictures – captures a moment in human history that won’t, or at very least shouldn’t be forgotten for decades to come.
Alyssa Chiarello – Aly’s Vintage Camera Alley
The Kickstarter campaign to raise the required funds launched yesterday on October 27th, 2021 and is seeking to raise the £12,000 (~16,500 USD or 20,400 CAD). If 250 people purchase a copy of the book not only will each person get their copy but each contributor will receive a copy of the work also. The campaign aims to run for sixty days ending on December 25th, 2021 and already has 48 backers and raised 15% of the required funds. This book is a superb project and as I mentioned before each photographer is highly talented and brings a diverse viewpoint on this global disruption.
You can find the complete list of contributing photographers over on the Kickstarter Page and while you’re there please consider providing some support. Every little bit counts.
Alex Luyckx
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