see book dummy Moving The Goalposts (2024)
https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/10246847/545cc41385e5d5263952e28a01f41bbc3cce1665

Watching the news from China and Italy, the reports from hospitals and graveyards showing the despair of the people in February 2020, we were told that we were 2 weeks behind the curve, and shown what we were to expect, while life in the UK was still busy. We were blindly keeping calm and carrying on.

The magnolia trees started to bloom; a vision of beauty, nobility, and dignity, new growth and renewal. Days before lockdown, the outbreak in the UK had been doubling in size every three days. However, the government press conference shaping the narrative insisted that the virus was under control.

I asked myself how we were supposed to interpret the information, while at the same time,
we witnessed the fatalities in Italy going up. Finally, when measures were taken and the announcement was made of the first lockdown at 8 pm on 23rd March 2020, we were told we must follow the rules to ‘save many thousands of lives’. How were we to process the emotional reality of the ongoing disaster? I made notes daily, reflecting on how the crisis had affected me.

Aware of the blossom while watching the daily death toll on TV, looking at the graphs but unable to take it in, I did not see anything else. Writing a diary and taking images helped to deal with the contradiction of the threat of the virus and the normality of spring.

Rereading my thoughts again in spring 2022 and accessing my own fear more rationally, the constant Covid news dominated my thoughts. Often I could not think of anything else, even when looking at the blossom of the magnolia. The triptych I have created represents the contradiction of the invisible threat of the virus in the beautiful spring.

3 Composite of images with text, 1.20mX1.20m, c-print