Photo Stories: Lockdown Loneliness by @heliossstardeath

"Suffocating," is how Wayne Fowler (@heliossstardeath) describes the feeling of taking photos at the height of the pandemic. "We were limited in the places we could visit and where we were allowed to go."

These black & white photos were taken in his hometown in Ledyard, Connecticut, USA. Wayne used his Bencini Koroll 24S camera, noticing a peculiar blur on the edges of the lens. Initially, he rejected these photos, attributing the resulting images to his "awful mood" due to the confinement.

"You end up shooting a lot from the windows of your own home, though I know other parts of the country weren't as restrictive as the northeast to begin with. We were allowed only to go to the local school to retrieve daily breakfasts and lunches. Schools were let out and the children you see in the photos were online schooled from home the remainder of the year. Most businesses were shuttered and a sense of tremendous loss pervaded."

While the photos mirrored the grim, limiting situation brought about by the quarantine, the situation is improving—the curve is flattening, and some parks and establishments are open with restrictions. But a lot of places, according to Wayne, are still "quiet, which lends an air of emptiness."

"Since we could only get within 2 meters of anyone else on a good day, it was lonely and almost void of other humans. You can see from the album—empty streets, not even autos. Only immediate family and window scenes to shoot. Though the power-line shot was to suggest that some processes were required to run at all costs, i.e. the power plant never stopped functioning in providing electricity. Someone had to go to that establishment to continue firing the oil burners to generate the steam to make the electricity and for those persons I am thankful.

Thank you, Wayne, for sharing your story and photos with us. Visit his LomoHome to see more of his photos.

2020-09-22 #culture #news #people #quarantine #lockdown