The British Photography Awards Lockdown Assignment 2020
The British Photographic Assignments is to inform and inspire. It is a platform for expression in the national cultural interest. We want to represent a variety of experiences, emotions, meanings, and opinions that each yearly theme presents. All disciplines and approaches of photography are welcomed, and the Assignment’s theme can be interpreted however the photographer chooses.
Submitting between 5-15 images and with an optional accompanying text of up to 400 words, the platform welcomes any projects, series, or individual frames taken in any period. Work does not have to have been taken during the Assignment’s opening dates.
This year’s assignment is the subject of COVID-19 and its effects on the world.
Below is my submission which was featured on their social media channels
“One morning, I was playing with my two and half year daughter Maya. The game she loves at the moment is playing with miniature plastic animals. As we were playing with these toys I had thought, why not photograph these animals as if I was photographing real-life subjects. So there was my challenge, take these toy animals and put them in an environment which would be as close as possible to real-life during the lockdown.
My first challenge was finding the right locations for these plastic animals. Next was to capture the toys with my camera to make them look as natural as possible even though they are plastic toys. I watched clips and documentaries of nature history and researched pictures online to give me a sense of where these animals lived and some of their behaviours.
After all this, I was excited about heading out and capturing the pictures. Along the way I got many strange looks from people. Especially when I was photographing the toy tiger in a local stream. To capture this image I had to lie on my stomach in the stream to achieve the correct point of view. At one point I looked up to see a whole family staring down from the bank with a look of confusion! Another embarrassing situation was photographing the tiny urban fox at night in my street. I'm sure some of my neighbours thought this guy must be cracking up!
I wanted to capture these plastic toys during the day and night to ensure they looked as natural as possible. I chose to use my macro lens for all the different shots to make the set as fluid as possible"
Submitting between 5-15 images and with an optional accompanying text of up to 400 words, the platform welcomes any projects, series, or individual frames taken in any period. Work does not have to have been taken during the Assignment’s opening dates.
This year’s assignment is the subject of COVID-19 and its effects on the world.
Below is my submission which was featured on their social media channels
“One morning, I was playing with my two and half year daughter Maya. The game she loves at the moment is playing with miniature plastic animals. As we were playing with these toys I had thought, why not photograph these animals as if I was photographing real-life subjects. So there was my challenge, take these toy animals and put them in an environment which would be as close as possible to real-life during the lockdown.
My first challenge was finding the right locations for these plastic animals. Next was to capture the toys with my camera to make them look as natural as possible even though they are plastic toys. I watched clips and documentaries of nature history and researched pictures online to give me a sense of where these animals lived and some of their behaviours.
After all this, I was excited about heading out and capturing the pictures. Along the way I got many strange looks from people. Especially when I was photographing the toy tiger in a local stream. To capture this image I had to lie on my stomach in the stream to achieve the correct point of view. At one point I looked up to see a whole family staring down from the bank with a look of confusion! Another embarrassing situation was photographing the tiny urban fox at night in my street. I'm sure some of my neighbours thought this guy must be cracking up!
I wanted to capture these plastic toys during the day and night to ensure they looked as natural as possible. I chose to use my macro lens for all the different shots to make the set as fluid as possible"