Unhappy hour: London’s West End during lockdown

The images denote empty streets across London due to the closure of locations. The images are styled to be dark to highlight what is going on due to the current pandemic.  The images are all photographed at night due to many people going out to party in a normal time at this hour. 

The images connote the emotion of emptiness due to the streets being made empty during the first national lockdown. The images interpret how the parts of London that at night are normally busy are all deserted due to the lockdown. The images meaning is to document how the Lockdown has decimated parts of London’s culture capital.

As a viewer, I am affected by how empty the streets looked during the first lockdown.  The images make me feel upset for the companies that have been struggling throughout 2020. When looking at the images you look at the areas that are lit up with them conveying more information on how the area is dead due to the restrictions. The work makes people feel sad and disappointed that they cannot go out and have a pint in a pub in the west end.

The work is significant to my project as this highlight how my work could look if I was to go out and document what the lockdown is having during the party hours. The use of colour with the theme being dark as it stands out to the eye to make it stand out to the viewers. The idea from this is significant to the project as it stands out to the viewer as it comes together to make it important for people at home.

The strengths of this series are that it highlights what has been going when it comes to the first lockdown. The strengths are highlighted when you look at the images and see how the images are locked together to allow them to look fluid so it can stand to the eye.  The only weakness is that the captions shown are not ads in-depth as I would like it to be to show what they are about.

The visual styles that I am planning on taking forward are how the images have been photographed to show the lockdown has impact parts of Ashford My work will be different compared to this series as I am not planning on photographing in empty pubs or shops. I want the styles to have my viewpoint on it with the images having more colour and having a higher exposure.

The intended audience for this series is to create a news documentary of how parts of London has been affected by the first lockdown there was hardly anyone that left their house. It is important to document how Covid has impacted the capital. Looking at these images nearly a year on still shocks me due to how places were forced to close to protect the health service.  These images were designed to be part of a selection to document the bars to show how they need support to keep trading.

The context that I have seen the work has been online on my laptop this gives the images less power to shine due to it giving me a small picture. The work would be stronger in a gallery as the images would work well when they are made into the full proportion that people would need to see to get to understand what is going on. The images would work well as postcard to remember what has happened over the last year or so.