by Yvette Depaepe

and Editor Vicente Dolz

Published the 6th of May 2020

In many countries all over the world, the pandemic confinement means that we cannot not leave our homes, we cannot go to work and we cannot … go out to take pictures.

Time to develop our 'inner' creativity.

We still can take 'indoor' and 'outdoor' images right in our close environment to express our current state of mind during this worldwide crisis.

1x released a photographic challenge to capture these rare moments and send in your indoor or 'close' outdoor photographs taken in quarantine.

To participate, upload your photo in your 1x portfolio, send the link together with a few sentences (no word limit) on how you experience these hard days to
Yvette Depaepe : [email protected]

Editor Vicente Dolz : [email protected] 

(No use to send your images and stories to both of us because we're working together as a team.)

Every week, we will publish an article in which we will collect your contributions.
If your image and story isn't yet in this article, be patient... it will in one of the next articles.

Looking forward to it ...

Stay safe and healthy!!!

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Button Moon  (Vikki Handyside) – UNITED KINGDOM
Here in the UK, we've been in lockdown for around 6 weeks now, and it looks like the curve is beginning to flatten.
Luckily I'm still working, due to being a Lorry Driver for a major supermarket, but my husband has been off work since lockdown, so he's been doing most of the housework, which is a bonus........
We have 3 beautiful dogs, so we're still able to get out for regular walks near to our home. If we weren't allowed out to exercise, then I think we'd drive each other crazy.
We are both fine, and I'm grateful to wake up each day with a clean bill of health, and that our family and friends have not been infected as of yet. It's heart-breaking that others haven't been so lucky, and my deepest sympathies go out to all those that have lost loved ones during this pandemic.
Lockdown has given me the time to sit down and go through a backlog of images that haven't been looked at from around 3 years ago, so I've been spending a lot of time editing.

The first image is a rework of an old image from a few years ago; and I think it fits the recent climate that we're all in.
I wanted to create an image that was visually dreamlike and surreal, yet conveyed a message that we're all potential carriers/spreaders, and that nobody is invincible. This virus doesn't discriminate, and it doesn't care who it infects - rich, poor, famous, young, old - we're all susceptible.
I hope you are all staying safe, and I hope you are all well.
Peace & love to everyone.

'Isolation' by Button Moon

In this second image, I wanted to symbolise the body's physical fight at expelling the virus from the body - like the body screaming from the inside, pushing out the demons, and I wanted it to be quite hard hitting. This was taken in our spare bedroom, using just the light from the window.

'Expelling the demons.......' by Button Moon

The third image shows 'Hope'. We are all fighting some sort of rainy/stormy weather, and 99% of the time some light start to shine through the clouds, and you start to see little glimmers of hope - hence the cup of rainbow.........

'Cup of rainbow.......' by Button Moon

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Marc Apers  – BELGIUM
In these times of “corona”, in Belgium people must keep at least 1.5 metres away from each other to avoid transmission of the virus.
Despite the lockdown we are allowed to move around in the open air but only in our immediate surroundings , the crazy thing however is that we are not allowed to stop on the way and take a little rest on a bench or having a pciknick, except elder people because they are not so mobile anymore. Luckily that's no problem for me, I really do like to walk and I'm still fit enough), so I don't really need to sit on a bench on the way.
Nevertheless I do miss the social contact these days and i hope everything turns back to normal soon but i think almost everyone of us wants this.

'Social distancing' by Marc Apers

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Lus Joosten – BELGIUM
Since the 'soft lockdown' was introduced in Antwerp, I leave my car in the garage and go for a 40km bike tour in the city and surroundings.  I'm following as strictly as possible, all the instructions given by the scientists and authorities.  Apart from a few exceptions, I'm glad to notice that people in the city, in the parks, on the roads, act with respect and discipline, whatever their age or culture.  I hope that these images taken in April express how happy the respectful behaviour of everybody makes me happy.

'social distancing' by Lus Joosten

'Big Sister is watching you' by Lus Joosten

'Update'

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Ina Tänzer  – PORTUGAL

After such a long time, without the possibility to go out and take pictures in the nature, the nerves of some people are on edge. So even the fly on the wall can be disturbing.

'even the fly on the wall...' by Ina Tänzer 

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António Bernardino Coelho  – PORTUGAL
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been at home developing my professional activities as an electrical engineer and recently became a father. The global situation is bad and inspires some care within our homes. At the level of photography and as I like conceptual themes I created some images that approach from the problem of protection of planet Earth as well as this Pandemic.

I would like to share two works with two different particularities, one of them the problem of plastic in the oceans, a terrible situation, given that we have already found some fish that eat plastic, even in the deepest places in the oceans. The other image is of a planet earth (the terrestrial globe) with a mask, this identifies the disease on Earth but on the other side I found the drawing of the support that looks like a helmet of a Roman fighter curious, as well as an appeal to the heroes who fight daily in hospitals (doctors, nurses and health technicians). These works were created at home during this period in which ideas stand out and allow the sometimes complex assemblies.

'Plastic! One enemy?' by António Bernardino Coelho

'Earth, today!' by António Bernardino Coelho

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Stephanie Kleimann  – FRANCE
Six weeks I am at home like half of the planet I guess. I cannot say I got bored, with 4 children, a dog, home office, homework, „home school“, and some new jobs that I discovered : teacher, baker, hairdresser… I have plenty of occupation.
But we have to do with a new concept in our everyday life : the confinement.
One of the most complicated thing is that we miss our friends, our family and our colleagues too… our way of life !

'Recreation during the confinement' by Stephanie Kleimann

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marie-anne stas  – FRANCE
I live in the South of France and for me, quarantine is getting hard.
I have my daughter, living in Belgium and being a nurse, who is infected by Corona.
Not too sick, but still I am very worried.  I want to go to her, but I am not allowed.
Makes me sad…
Stay safe everyone!

'Escaping from lockdown' by marie-anne stas

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kenichiro hagiwara  – JAPAN
I live in Japan.  Tokyo is not a city blockade. But me and my colleagues on the stage have lost our jobs and are waiting at home.  Like people in other countries, I try to minimize my outing and walking.  Instead of taking new pictures, I'm looking back at the past.
Myy statement is this: “I feel that the influence of COVID-19 spread around the world has changed the awareness of going out and interacting with other people.  Perhaps you can't go back to your everyday life in exactly the same way.  I may not be able to take a picture in the same way. 
I suddenly felt I had to come back to the pictures I had taken so far. There was certainly communication between me and the subject when I filmed.  Or maybe it was discommunication.  But we were there. I have to see it again, touch it again, and complete it again in the sense of April 2020.  It's more of a save than a completion.
I must at least leave a picture so I can regain access to the communications and contacts that were there.
I'm picking up a lot of past photos and confining them to a monochrome impression.
For me it was not important that this work met the 1X standard.
I am nostalgic for the past and continue to work to remember what happened at that time.
I hope to be able to take again portraits with close people one day.

'ReTouch the past again' by kenichiro hagiwara

'ReTouch the past again' by kenichiro hagiwara

'ReTouch the past again' by kenichiro hagiwara

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brut carniollus  – SLOVENIA
The word has stopped. Giving us an incredible opportunity to do the same and rethink the way we envision our society. An opportunity we never had or could even imagine. The world has stopped to give us time to think. Are we going to? Most probably not, but now we know the world can stop and we can too. We may refuse to accept the unthinkable, but while the world has stopped we also realised the pink elephant exists. And when all starts again we'll know what we never before thought possible. The world can stop. And we can slow down too.

'Safe Socialising in Time of Quarantine' by brut carniollus

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Daniel Jafari  - SWEDEN
I hope you are doint well. No more words to say about how it has been and how it feels.
I have created some conceptual works since all this started, but I have uploaded just one of them which is already published.
I named the work for survivor after a very down psycological period. Many ppl I new including my family members were talking a lot about the helplessness and hopelessness. They expressed a feeling of ”its the end of the world”
The work Survivor is an attempt to illustrate this helplessness around me.

'Survivor' by Daniel Jafari

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Piera Polo  - ITALY
I'm Piera and I'm Italian, but I've been living in the Canary Islands for over 20 years. During this quarantine period I got back in touch with my childhood friends, Ines who lives in Berlin and Federica who is in Cagliari. Ines is a Yoga teacher, so every day we practice an hour of Yoga together and after that we have a nice chat, remembering the past. I am fortunate to live in a small island, El Hierro, and to have a house with a beautiful terrace, where I can admire both the sea and the mountainous part with a very high cliff and in front, on a small hill called Joapira, the bell tower of the little town called Frontera. This is my place  where I practice yoga every day. So it was a stroke of luck to stay on my terrace at that moment and to be able to see this show, a beautiful rainbow, which came after this intense moment of connection with my friends. Fortunately I was able to photograph it and convey that serenity and peace that I felt at that moment, but we all miss it in this period of so much desperation and uncertainty for the future.
I hope that everything it 'll be all right soon for everybody.
Namaste!

'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' by Piera Polo

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Andreas Agazzi  – SWITZERLAND
Since mid of March 2020 I am working in 'home office'; a measurement that is advisable in these days for everyone where the circumstances allows it. Ironically, until today I did not find the additional time to do some 'homework' in terms of processing images and learning new skills, but who knows for how long we have to live with the consequences of Covid 19 that re-organises everyones daily structure and habits. The most important, I am until today in good health.
In conjunction with my assignment I did a reportage of Zurich Airport that shows the current situation caused by Covid 19. Like many other airports, Zurich faces a significant reduction of passengers, the todays flightplan show just a few flights, mainly for repatriation and for cargo. Within the terminals, but also outside of them, an eldritch mood has taken over the scene. With the following photographs I record the scene and feelings that airports and the few number of passengers encounter. Nevertheless, stay home and take care about your and others health.

'The escape' by Andreas Agazzi

Business traveller heading towards the gate where the one of the last flights departs to the home destination. Covid 19 rule the timetables at many airports around the world during spring 2020.

'Communicating Covid19' byAndreas Agazzi

Dwell time before a flight during the Covid 19 pandemic. Patience is required, nowadays, however, communication via mobile device helps to beat the time and to stay connected with the world while practicing social distancing.

A Boeing 777-300ER and a Airbus A330-300 of Swiss grounded during Covid 19. Uncertain for how long, let's hope for the best. 

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amin mahdavi  – IRAN
This is my personal vision about the impact of COVID19 on our lives, expressed in this  small photomontage collection.

 
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Alireza Iravani  – IRAN
Actually these days I stay at home and as a photographer try to capture our situation. This photo of a little boy in quarantine days imagining his toy car parked behind outside cars, is one of them.

'Image' by Alireza Iravani

And here an image of Shiva and Shakila: two sisters running an art school.  Because of the Corona-virus, their schook is closed. They decided to teach some courses online from home. This photo shows their backstage situation.
You can see Shiva as a teacher, teaching fabric painting and her sister Shakila as a supporter answering students questions (the girl in the mirror).

n/t by Alireza Iravani

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Hemanta Swain  - INDIA

I live in Mumbai, the city in India with maximum Covid-19 cases and deaths right now. We are locked in our homes for more than a month now. As a photography enthusiast, though I couldn't go out, I tried to utilize this time by browsing through my old images. I got some interesting photos I had taken a decade ago. It was a wonderful visual experience of my journey as a photographer. I got this image of crows seating on a wire little apart. It fitted to this present scenario of social distancing. I edited the original image ( inverted). I wanted the crows to be white in order to symbolize the significant changes of our society and individuality due to Covid-19.

One best thing about this pandemic is that, many of us got an inward journey to the core of ourselves, and the findings are not going to blur soon.

'social distancing' by Hemanta Swain

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To participate, upload your photo in your 1x portfolio, send the link together with a few sentences (no word limit) on how you experience these hard days to
Yvette Depaepe :  [email protected]
Editor Vicente Dolz : [email protected] 

Looking forward to your submissions