Doorstep portraits during lockdown 2020

At the height of lockdown when everything felt like a drag, something changed in me. Whilst counting myself very lucky - living where we live, with people I love more than anything - I felt sad, sad that I had to give up my job indefinitely (well, there was no choice really - I was not allowed to take bookings). Sad that even though we tried to change things up for the kids, most days looked the same. The same routines, the same arguments about homeschooling, same house, same, same, same. Don’t get me wrong, most days had lots of joy and laughter. But as a mother not being able to feel like you give enough of what they need, to your children, is hard. I was even more sad for everyone in the world suffering due to this horrible pandemic, financially, physically, mentally. Sad that we didn’t know if and when this would stop. I wanted to do something positive I just didn’t know what.

Whilst doing the run5donate5nominate5 challenge a few weeks earlier I had stumbled upon this lovely charity called Rainbow Trust Children's Charity. It is a fantastic charity that provides emotional and practical support to families who have a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness. Due to the pandemic all their large fundraising events for the foreseeable future are cancelled or postponed and I wanted to continue doing anything that I could to help.

I needed to get back to doing what inspires me; photographing families and the dynamics between each of them. The idea of doing doorstep portraits ticked so many boxes for me. It has allowed me to capture this very strange situation that we all find ourselves in a fun way, when we were all stuck behind our front doors for so long. I managed to get some well needed socialisation (distanced of course) and most importantly I raised money for the Rainbow Trust, who I feel deserves all the help and money they can get. £10 of each session fee was donated to the charity.

To those of you that I met on those sunny days in April and May, THANK YOU. You have helped me reach and exceed my target to the Rainbow Trust. I have loved reading all your touching emails after you’ve received your galleries, this is the reason I do what I do :)

At the time of writing we have raised £580 and I will continue to raise money on my JustGiving page. Click through if you would like to donate.

I photographed 38 families in the end. It was lovely to see so many smiling faces; young, old, large families and small families. All so happy to do something out of their normal routine. I have put together a video with a fraction of the beautiful photos from the past couple of months, I tried to keep it short but it was impossible! See if you can spot yourself or someone you know. Feel free to leave comments below.

With love,

Åsa