A GLASGOW photographer says a movement to capture people in lockdown isolation has lifted spirits and helped freelancers promote their work at a time when most are dealing with the loss of all their income.
Kerstin Grünling, a professional portrait photographer, says the pandemic resulted in her losing all the commissions she had lined up, including lucrative wedding jobs and studio work and it’s uncertain when she will be able to begin working again.
She says that while the pandemic gave her a change to “catch up with my to-do list", after a few weeks she says she missed the social interaction photographing people.
Kerstin, who is German but moved to Glasgow in 2012, was aware of a movement that had been started by a Dutch photographer and has been replicated by photographers world-wide of taking doorstep portraits.
She tentatively put out an invite on a neighbour community site and interest in her socially distanced project grew.
She said: “The lockdown resulted in the cancellation and postponement of all jobs I had lined up.
“It's a situation that all photographers were experiencing - our source of income was set on an indefinite pause.
“We still don’t know when our normal work will start again and what it will look like.
“Weddings got cancelled or postponed, studio work is not possible for a while yet and corporate shoots are postponed as well.
“We don't know if the previously lined up photo sessions will be happening this year as the priorities of our clients may have changed once we come out of this to a new normal.
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“I took the pause as a chance to catch up with my to-do list and even started a lockdown self-portrait series, which was fun at the beginning but after a few weeks I really started missing working with and photographing people.
“Way back in ApriI I heard about a Dutch photographer, who was doing doorstep photographs but I did not immediately go for it.
"Then more and more photographer worldwide started doing similar projects.”
While the initial photographs were free, Kerstin, who lives in the West End, said she hopes it will lead to some further paid work as the reaction has been so positive.
However, she said the project has benefitted both her and the people she is photographing in other ways that she didn’t expect.
She said: “It had big effect on me. I felt like singing and dancing all day.
“The families and individuals I have photographed love their photos and talked about sending them to family and friends.
“Helena, who was dancing on the table in the rain for her photo, told me that it was super uplifting for her to do the photo session.
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“She had a reason to dress up and took some music with her to do something she loves - dancing. We actually did another wee shoot the next day because she enjoyed it so much.
“They all seemed to be super excited about doing something different and also to interact with someone not living within their household.
“I think the teenagers were probably the least impressed but hopefully they will be happy in a few years when they can look back to this weird lockdown2020 and have a lovely visual memory.”
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