Community Art Project

Ciara Leeming is organising a community art project. Submissions for the zine she is producing are welcome by 31st May 2021. You can submit entries or ask for further information by emailing Ciara on info@ciaraleeming.co.uk

Levy Lockdown Portraits

What did you do during lockdown? Well, Ciara Leeming did a photography project documenting the people in our community. Levy Lockdown Portraits is a record of lockdown through photographs of people in their windows.

“It started with my street. A few weeks into lockdown, in mid-April 2020, I asked if any of my neighbours would let me photograph them as a way of documenting this odd period of history. These inaugural window portraits went down well – they were surreal and interesting and I needed something creative to do. So I kept going.

I approached friends in Levenshulme, Manchester, and, when I shared the work on social media, potential participants began finding me. I approached people on the street and knocked on doors when plant displays, window decorations or chalk slogans caught my eye.

I photographed households from many local communities, captured the socially-distanced VE Day and Eid celebrations, and met loads of interesting people along the way.

By the time lockdown restrictions began being eased at the end of May, I’d made 260 portraits, over 38 days of shooting. Every portrait was made within cycling distance of my home, often with my two young sons in tow.

Ciara Leming

Given the historic nature of this time – and the local appreciation for the project ­– the obvious next step was to turn the series into a physical book. This will now definitely happen as the original fundraising target for Levy Lockdown Portraits has been reached. The stretched target ends on Saturday 1st August. You can see options and contribute and secure copies of the book HERE

Ciara Leeming is a print journalist and documentary photographer who has lived in Levenshulme, Manchester, since 2004. Read an article about Ciara and her project in the Manchester Evening News HERE