The Picturing Lockdown Collection was created during April and May 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. During seven days the public were asked to submit photographs that they felt best represented their experiences of lockdown in England, and from these submissions one hundred representing all the different geographic regions were chosen to be archived with Historic England. Alongside these images, ten artists were commissioned to produce their own images over the course of five days, representing their lockdown experience. These were supplemented with images by Historic England’s own photographers. Together, the Picturing Lockdown collection forms a permanent visual record of this unusual time in history.
This photograph, taken at 08.30 on 1st May 2020, is the first of five images depicting the lockdown as experienced by the artist Polly Braden, and represents the Central London region. The artist has written the following text to explain how this image documents their experience of lockdown: "I’ve been using my exercise time during lockdown to cycle through the city, generally early in the mornings, as the kids are home and need help during the day. The city is eerily quiet, with offices shut and almost everyone furloughed or working from home. The streets are clean from rubbish, swept and washed, as street cleaners carry on their work. The city looks like a pristine film set and it’s this I’m keen to capture."
This is part of the Volume: HEC01/036/02/08 Picturing Lockdown Collection: Artists' Submissions - Polly Braden; within the Sub Series: HEC01/036/02 Picturing Lockdown Collection - Artists' Submissions; within the Series: HEC01/036 Picturing Lockdown Collection; within the Collection: HEC01 Historic England
© Polly Braden
Photographer: Braden, Polly
Health And Welfare, Street Scene
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