A St Albans photographer is creating a living record of a year under the pandemic for display in the city museum.
Snapper Nic Madge is spending a couple of days a week, weather permitting, outside the museum with his camera and photographs passers-by with their permission.
So far, he has captured the Mayor, councillors, market stall holders, shoppers, visitors, migrants and homeless people, reflecting the rich diversity of St Albans.
The portraits will contribute to a historic record documenting the Covid pandemic, showing people both with and without masks.
Nic is also asking his subjects to write a few words about the pandemic and how it has affected them.
The images and captions will enter the Museum archives so future generations can see what we look like and how we lived through the pandemic. Some of the images will also be shown on pop-up digital screens in the Museum + Gallery in January and in the Museum’s planned Lock Down Life exhibition in April.
Nic said he does not want this just to be a dry historical record, but an immediate, ongoing, interactive project involving all the communities of St Albans.
He said: “Living through the Covid pandemic is the biggest challenge faced by the people of St Albans for over 70 years. It is also history in the making. Last month, before the current lockdown was imposed, already feels like history. Indeed, October 2020 is now history. Future generations will study the pandemic and analyse the ways it changed the social, economic and political fabric of this country.”
If you want to take part in the project, email Nic at nicmadge@ntlworld.com and he will let you know when he next plans to take photographs.
Nic is very conscious of Covid-safety issues and ensures that social distancing is maintained at all times, as well as providing hand sanitiser. All photographs are taken in the open air.
Together with the museum, he will be making the images immediately available via Instagram, Facebook and Nic’s website. Nic also emails a free photograph to everyone photographed.
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