Alice Hutchison - Direct From Home

Direct From Home is a documentation of the inner city suburbs of Melbourne, Australia at night. This project, by photographer Alice Hutchinson, is in response to Melbourne’s second lock down.

Alice states, “this time everyone is feeling the effects of lockdown more intensely as the city responds to a second wave of infections.”

By global standards, Melbourne Covid-19 numbers are low, but as an island nation, the approach Australia has taken leans more towards elimination than measured control.

Living rooms and bedrooms have been transformed into workstations as people set up or remain in place for a longer period of tine, and with greater understanding of the enduring nature of this global crisis. Melbournians are also, by law, wearing masks in public when and if they venture out.

There is no doubt people are struggling to remain positive as the boundary blurs between work and home life even more, giving sensation of an increasingly small world. As Melbournian’s try not to get too overwhelmed by the news, both local and global, the home office and the demands of work continue late into the winter evening. Small wars transpire between the ornamental pot plant meant to calm the nerves, and the wires of the dreaded work PC and all of its shitty paraphernalia. Their sonic lives consist of video calls , and for some, the dual task of teaching their children.

Like many places however, Melbourne is not alone. Somewhere across the globe is another city, at home again. In this series, Alice captures her neighbourhood, just after dusk, on the way to her local grocery store. These images record intimate moments of her neighbourhood in response to a global issue.