All dressed up and nowhere to go

I began this photography project in January, after the government announced another national lockdown, including the closure of schools. I was on maternity leave with my son Kit who was born in June last year, and was finding this – like the previous lockdown in November – hard.

Despite the horrors that the country was experiencing, I took a lot of positives away from the lockdown in March 2020. I was pregnant and it was a chance to slow down, spend time in nature and at home. But I found the subsequent lockdowns much harder, not being able to see family and friends, particularly with a new baby. This project was an opportunity for me to explore how other families with children were finding this period of isolation.

I was thinking of all the new mothers and fathers, the children and teenagers who are missing their friends and are bored at home. I decided to focus this photography project on fancy dress to make the photo shoots a fun and playful time in themselves. I asked parents and children to escape into their imaginations and come up with the best costumes they could find at home, and then went and took photos from the street.