The wonderful ways we are documenting this ‘unprecedented time’ for future generations
Heartwarming images of resilience in the face of adversity, love and family are shining through as South Australians come together to capture and document an ‘unprecedented time’.
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The year 2020 has been described as an “unprecedented time” more times than anyone of us would care to count. But how will it be viewed by future generations?
Many South Australians are now doing their bit to document life under COVID-19, capturing everything from social distancing, to changed work spaces, family life and empty sports grounds.
Heartwarming are the images of resilience in the face of adversity, love and family that shine through most loud and most often.
The SA State Library has launched a call-out for submissions to be included as part of its formal collection, to be housed alongside historic documents such as Colonel Light’s signed will.
The library’s Neil Charter said it was incredibly important to preserve this time in history.
“We really are preserving the identity of the state – every drawer has a different story,” he said, referring to the more than 60km of shelving housed under the North Tce facility.
“We all live in different ways and we have been impacted in different ways – collectively that will become our experience and future generations will find that very interesting to look back on.
“It is a great opportunity to really capture this unprecedented time to give a snapshot into people’s houses and what they did do. It is the stories of the state (and) everyone’s story is important.”
Mr Charter said the librarians, archivists and collection specialists would work together to create an official COVID-19 collection.
“A lot of people are probably collecting at the moment, for the moment, but we have the technology and professional know how to preserve these items so they will be in fine state in 100 years time.”
Mr Charter said images for the “Remember My Story” project were being shared via the library’s website or Facebook page.
“We’ve had all kinds of things coming in from a lot of children’s road chalk drawings with messages about COVID, to people showing the different ways they are working.
“There is a lovely shot of a couple out in the Barossa, sitting in their back garden with their laptops and a couple of bottles of fine Barossa red while their daughter is on the swing in the background.– it is a lovely photograph and just shows how the family has adapted.
“A woman at Urrbrae, who lives by herself, has found her way of coping is to go out and hug a tree. So there are all these different ways in which people are adapting.”
For photographer Rachel Sharp, the challenge of COVID-19 has created a new professional opportunity, even born out of necessity.
The 30-year-old had set up a newborn baby study at Ridgehaven in Adelaide’s north east, Little Oak Studio, just months before the pandemic struck.
With in-studio photographs of new bubs on hold, she started looking for new projects and settled on a book, The COVID Tales, to showcase how local business had adapted to the crisis.
“All around me, I saw business owners fighting to adapt,” she said,
“People have been talking about this time as being ‘history in the making’ … I felt like I needed to do something to capture that, to document and share the stories of Adelaide business.”
The graphic design-trained mum of four plans to photograph and tell the stories of up to 95 SA businesses. Business owners pay to be part of the project, funding the book’s production. ”The main thing I have got from it this is that people have used this time to knuckle down and do things that they wouldn’t normally – they are really kind of working on their businesses and using this as an opportunity, rather than getting down in the dumps and just giving up,” Mrs Sharp said.
Meanwhile, SA’s Council on the Ageing, COTA, is facilitating a project which will see thousands of older South Aussies share their experience on postcards
“While digital platforms are fantastic, there’s something very personal about a written
letter or postcard,” COTA SA chief executive Jane Mussared said.
“We look forward to hearing from older people who are finding this period really lonely and lacking purpose but also from those who are loving the chance to finish projects
that they never get around to.
“Also, for those older people who had already dipped their toe into the digital world, this
has been a chance to really stretch out and embrace new technologies – many are now
part of regular Zoom and Facetime meetings and catch ups.
“The responses will be collated and shared with the wider public through publications,
collaboration with record keepers, and in an exhibition as part of COTA SA’s festival for modern ageing, ZestFest, in 2021.”
Retiree Jennifer Blackwood is one who has embraced technology to continue interests such as the choir she is part of and Italian lessons.
She said she was looking forward to being part of the “Postcards from behind the COVID curtain” project.
“In all honesty, I don’t think (this period in time) compares to anything in my lifetime,” Ms Blackwood said.
“As an older person, it has made me think about what it must have like for my parents during WWII – my father was a prisoner of war in German camps, my mother was packing parcels so the POWs could be sent some love.”
