By John Kelly
The pandemic made me realise quite early on that most of my paid ‘gigs’ and any other potentials such as concerts and weddings couldn’t happen . So I did what any creative person does, be creative! I rebranded my website, I went back to looking at urban and landscape photography,and I used the lock down as a way of not just rebranding my photography, but how I looked down the lens at myself . I adapted to what is now our new norm.
I took the opportunity to cycle into the city, taking pictures of places during the time where it would normally be busy, such as the Grosvenor Road flyover on a Saturday morning and Cathedral Quarter during Saturday afternoon, as well as Ann Street (all pictured above). I was taking photos of these now desolate and quite frankly eerie places that are normally busting at the seams with life. I had taken a drive out to Gleno waterfall, and with lock down still in full swing I had the whole place to myself, it was quiet, peaceful, and exactly what I needed to work on long exposure skills. I was over the moon when I had a look at the photo (pictured below) and realised there was a common theme between this photo and the urban shots, I had all the time in the world, I got to let the creative juices flow free and work their magic.
This lock down has actually forced me to take a step back and made me look at what I want to do with a new perspective, as well as adding some much needed fuel on the creative fire inside me. I’ve realised that the pipeline ideas I had at the start of the year are now achievable and will come to fruition over the next few months.
I hope this can rekindle other creatives to think on a more positive note and see that sometimes being forced to look at something in a different light isn’t necessarily a bad thing, maybe that’s the photographer speaking in me though.
You can find more of John’s photography on Instagram, and on his website.
The Jumble 