The overall purpose of the set of images is to capture how my physical space reflects my mental state, from good intentions falling apart and the difficulties of disruptions and confinement taking its toll. I live in a boat in Dubai. I stood in one spot and took a consecutive sequence of images. I used 35mm black and white film so that I could develop it at home. I scanned it using my phone.
I live on a boat and therefore at the peak of the lockdown, I was confined within a very small space for days on end. There was a real sense of danger outside and I could not leave the boat more often than once every three days.
This led to my space feeling like walls I was cocooned into. The initial good intentions of order and strategy slipped into chaos and disorganisation. I therefore stood in one spot in the middle of the cabin and ran off an entire roll of film to capture the different details of my mad little survival nest.
There is a disarray of a hundred different ideas and plans – plans to read books, plans to try experimenting with different forms of photography, plans to finally use those cameras and lenses which have been sitting around gathering dust. All brought out to find a way to cope with the abrupt end of immediate access to everything. I suddenly had to make good with what I had or wait for weeks to receive anything – something I have not had to do for decades.
So many good intentions, all brought out of their storage spots to create an insurmountable and suffocating set of walls to further trap me into my isolation, with the only company being the cats.
This was shot on my boat in Port Rashid in Dubai. It was shot on 35mm roll of Ilford Delta 400 using my Canon AE1 and developed at home. The images have been scanned using my iPhone to further emphasize the lack of finesse and quality control in all this.
About the author:
I was born in India and raised in the UAE and come from a family of goldsmiths going back at least 11 generations.
Alongside my practice as a lawyer in Dubai, I continue to explore my goldsmithing roots alongside my practice in analogue and digital photography.
When I am not at my workbench, I can be found developing or printing photographs in the darkroom at Tashkeel.
I am a member of Tashkeel and a member of Analog Photography in UAE group.
Do you have a story to tell, too ?
Project DOCUPAN is driven by the analog community, striving to record a history of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic through the lenses of analog photographers all over the globe. Click below and become a part of a project we don’t know yet how large it will grow.
Tell and share your story and help to record history in a project that has never been done before.
Do you have a story to tell, too ?
Project DOCUPAN is driven by the analog community, striving to record a history of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic through the lenses of analog photographers all over the globe. Click below and become a part of a project we don’t know yet how large it will grow.
Tell and share your story and help to record history in a project that has never been done before.
More from Project DOCUPAN:
17: Stockholm – by Astrid Robertsson
I took these photos on 35mm Ilford HP5+ and FP4+ which I then developed and scanned at home. The photos were taken with a Canon Eos 500 camera and 50mm lens in Stockholm between March and April this year when the coronavirus pandemic was accelerating in Europe.I took...
16: Submerged – by Simon Wolfson
Series taken with Ilford HP5 Plus 120 film, and a Yashicaflex Model A camera. Johannesburg, South Africa. This series, a mixture of abstract and portrait photography, represents my vision of the 2020 Covid-19 lock-down. I've entitled the series 'Submerged' after the...
15: Lockdown ‘Street Bingo’ Captured in Pinhole by Rachel Brewster-Wright
I took this series of images (Title - Lockdown 'Street Bingo' Captured in Pinhole) in Liverpool, UK on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (26th April 2020) which I shot using medium format HP5+ at 400 ISO and Kodak TMAX 100, using an ONDU 6x9 wooden pinhole...
