A visual essay about the dissolution of time under lockdown. Documenting the endless repetition of a similar day, yet made too short by remote work and parenting.

Time is paradoxical this Spring, a season most of us are spending inside, all over the world. Isolated, but together universally. Aside from posting a couple of funny memes to play down the horror, little free time is left for work, reading, or a little TV. Yet idle days, one leading to the other, week after week, as other countries enter the same situation with either a little delay, or slowly start leaving it. I’m not counting the days. They all feel like a single, identical, long one. An invitation to appreciate our connection to reality. Here is a diary of this endless day, where chronology no longer matters. As a new moon was rising, for everyone. Which surprisingly echoed that chorus from a Radiohead song. In The Numbers, Yorke calls for a change through a beautiful, optimistic call to arms. The clock has already been ticking for us all, but it stops for a moment to allow us one last chance to think about the environmental issues at stake, the importance of public service and healthcare, and the significance of a human connection over goods in a sustainable economy. And it feels like we got the message here pretty clearly this time round, which has made this experience both so intimate and so very global at the same time. This made everyone feel a different sense of time.

It isn’t lost on me that it’s a luxury to even stay at home while some have no choice but go work despite the omnipresent danger, most often for a modest salary, while others still don’t even have a home to stay in. And some were actually hurt by the virus. It could be tempting to simply observe the beauty in the mundane and I naturally took advantage of the situation just keep my spirits up. But I also wanted to use it as an opportunity to reevaluate things and avoid turning this in a lifestyle issue. As a young man with no preexisting conditions, with a loving partner, a healthy kid, and nothing worse than a temporary lack of revenues that we can cope with, I am fully aware that other households here and all over the world are going through this tough time with far more difficulty, and much more to worry about than a simple personal project.

I didn't need to be reminded how lucky I was. Still, this isolation has given me time to think about what photography means to me. The change was so strong that from day one, I started documenting our life at home in order to keep track of this for ourselves, – and also to keep myself busy, since all gigs got cancelled (not that home-schooling and parenting wouldn't keep us busy enough, but I was afraid of having my photographic practice fall dormant). I also felt that I had to make something out of this situation, for my work, and for my sake.

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