Welcome to the March round-up – I’ll be honest, it isn’t quite the round-up I thought I’d be writing at the beginning of the month and it has proved harder to write than I thought it would be.
Covid-19, Corona Virus, social distancing, key workers, hand sanitiser, global pandemic, Thank you NHS, ventilators, lockdown, face masks, protect the NHS, stay home, save lives – all words and phrases seldom in use at the end of last month, but now probably make up a large portion of usage in text messages, phone calls, face time calls, Whatsapp and shouted through closed windows to our nearest and dearest.
Our lives have changed with sudden effect and are unrecognizable to our everyday routines just a few short weeks ago. But life must go on – we’re still visiting Aldi & the Asda and cycling in the park, walking the dog and some amongst us are literally putting their lives at risk to help every day people like you and me – to them it’s just another extraordinary day at work – and we salute you.
The most recent set of photos I shot was from the day before the lockdown. I walked the length of Vittoria Street from Corporation Road to Conway Street/Park Road North. For a normally vibrant street, it was eerily quiet – just a few people nipping to the corner shop on Beckwith Street for last minute supplies and a small, orderly “social distancing” queue outside the pharmacy on the corner of St. Anne Street.
We can still continue to take photos for this project during lockdown, but our priorities lie elsewhere and our time outside is limited to our time outdoors during daily exercise.
Once this pandemic is a recent nightmare rather than a current threat, the project will resume to its full capacity. In the meantime, I truly believe that the way that it has affected our everyday lives in the local community should be recorded for posterity in photographs – this catastrophic time will be historically significant and it is for those of us right here, right now to record it in photographs for future generations.
With this in mind, Can I ask you that you send me some photos of your everyday life?
Please send any photos to info@fotopiaimages.com and please remember to include your name and where the photo was taken. I will acknowledge every single email, without fail – so if you don’t receive an email from me, please check your spam/junk folder..
It could be a walk or run for your daily exercise, a visit to the chemist, empty shelves or helpful staff in the supermarket, waving to your loved ones through the window or doorstep deliveries of food to you parents – whatever catches your attention during your new daily life. It doesn’t matter if you have a snazzy camera or just use your phone to get these photos – the important thing is that the photographs are taken.
Just for the record, we now have a total of 4109 photographs of 414 streets in the archive. Join our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/birkenheadpostcards/) for more pictures of Birkenhead, old and new.
From myself and the team, very best wishes to you and all your loved ones.
Take care and #staysafe
