Two images which illustrate how Keswick stayed positive throughout lockdown have won town photographer Tim Fisher national recognition.
One of Tim’s pictures shows Eddie Burrows giving a rooftop performance at his home in Windebrowe Avenue as Freddie Mercury, wearing the legendary Queen singer’s trademark white vest with microphone and stand in hand.
The other features two young Keswick sisters having a dance near their home in Latrigg Close during VE Day celebrations, complete with red, white and blue hair bands, despite the event’s 75th anniversary coinciding with lockdown.
Both photographs, called Eddie Sings and Dancing Divas, were from Tim’s Lockdown In Keswick project and they have now been included in the winning 100 images in the Portrait of Britain 2020 competition.
Tim — owner of the Northern Lights gallery in St John’s Street — said: “It is hugely gratifying to see that some of my ‘Keswick in Lockdown’ pictures are considered both contemporary and relevant enough to be selected in 2020 for this prestigious annual nationwide competition and its book and exhibition.
“From 23rd April — a month after the town was locked down — I asked the residents of Keswick via Facebook if I could come and photograph them during lockdown,” he said. “How they were spending their days in those very strange weeks resulted in a series of portraits and formed a body of photographic documentary evidence of how the town and its residents managed through the pandemic.
“All of us in the town were hugely aware that we were the fortunate ones, with mountains, streams, parks, lakes and nature as our backyards, whereas others were less fortunate, living in cities and clearly suffering during this period. This was my response to this pandemic — one of unbridled optimism, hope, joy, celebration.”
Portrait of Britain is the nation’s biggest photography exhibition and its 100 winning portraits will be displayed on a network of digital advertising screens countrywide, from railway stations, bus stops and airports to shopping malls and high streets, making it the largest art exhibition in the country. It is part-run by the British Journal of Photography and both Tim’s portraits will be shown in its exhibition and in the Portrait of Britain book.
“There were something like 13,000 entries and I understand there are only two photographers with more than one image included,” added Tim, who has had his work selected in two previous years.
