Photography in Lockdown

Back in January at the height of another lockdown I spotted an open call for submissions from Workhorse Collective. They were looking for photographs for the next issue of their WerkHaus zine with the theme Still Life, hoping to inspire fellow photographers to get their cameras out and use this strange suspended time to create something.

At the time I wasn’t feeling up to much, especially not creatively but as soon as I saw the theme, I remembered a few photos I had wanted to work on and they happened to fit perfectly. I immediately got to work creating the image I had seen when I had first taken the photos in December and working on that submission was not only a little bit of joy during a difficult time, it also gave me both my focus and motivation back. Even after I submitted my entry, I continued to work on other photography projects for a few hours every day, which ended up helping me get through the fluidity of the days in lockdown.

Working on my submission for the zine would have been worth it just for that but then summer arrived and I found out my photo had made it into the final selection. It arrived in the post in July and I was blown away when I saw everyone else’s photos and the quality of the editing, so I feel proud to have been a part of it and have also discovered a few new photographers to look out for.

Workhorse Collective is selling both print and digital editions of Issue 2 of the zine on their website here. If you prefer to buy your zines in a physical shop, it is also being sold in The Photographer’s Gallery bookshop in London.

- Lea

Making Books

Something really exciting arrived today. Back in January I decided to order a specialized photo printer and after several delays it arrived this morning. I will have my own in-house access to photo printing now, an investment I hope will make me able to make more photo books in the future, as well as fine art prints.

During the first lockdown in England last year I made my first handbound photo book, a project I would have done again, had I not lost my printing access after. In the meantime I have worked on the new design for the website and on a zine to be industrially printed, so it seems like the right time to get back into bookbinding again.

I love the tactile experience of using film cameras and handling prints, and to me bookbinding feels like an extension of that. As much as I like showing my own work or view others on a screen and as much as this digital era of online and social media is allowing us to do that, something happens when an image exists as a physical object in the world, especially when much of my work is already about recording things for the future.

I am looking forward to the creative freedom I will now have and can’t wait to get started on the many ideas and projects that have lived in my head until now.

- Lea

Hello,

If you have visited my blog or website before you might have noticed that things are looking quite different. It’s been a while in the making but I have been quietly working away on a new website since this summer, as the old one was no longer suited to show the things I work on.

I’m looking forward to show more of my ongoing projects and behind-the-scenes work, which the new design will hopefully make a bit easier. It will be updated every so often, so keep checking in as there might be something new the next time you visit.

Whether you have stumbled upon the website for the first time or visited before, thank you for taking the time to have a look.

- Lea