Have you been seriously affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and the Government’s handling of it in the UK? Perhaps you’re a nurse working on the front lines in the NHS, or a shielder forced to stay at home all summer. Maybe you’re experiencing symptoms long after you should be ‘cured’, or have witnessed a loved one struggle to fight the disease. Whatever your story, if Covid-19 has completely transformed your life in 2020, photographer Alfie White wants to hear from you.
The 20-year-old south Londoner is using his grant from the Dazed 100 Ideas Fund, supported by Converse, to create a national photo-essay, Herd Immunity, to tell the stories of people whose lives and loved ones have been affected by Covid-19. The project aims to document the monumental human cost of the pandemic in the UK, as well as the effects of the actions – and inaction – of the current government.
“The driving force behind what I do is people: their stories, situations, emotions, relationships, those moments that make us human,” Alfie told us earlier this year, with this project being informed by his own story – specifically the loss of someone close to him from Covid. “Something that I’m unable to see has taken someone I’m also unable to see; the closest thing to tangible evidence being a statistic on a TV screen,” he shared.
Inspired by this, Alfie’s project seeks to highlight how individual lives have been affected, reclaiming their stories from the statistics. “I want their voices to be heard, that’s it,” he says. “Media representation is something I’m extremely passionate about in general, but the way Covid-19 in Britain and the year 2020 globally has been represented has been a cause of much frustration and even indignation in me and others. I want to create these projects to counter this misrepresentation, or lack of representation, and to have cemented in time an honest, authentic, and intimate account.”
To register your interest in participating in Alfie White’s Herd Immunity project, please send your details (including your name, age and location) and a brief description (max 200 words) of how the pandemic transformed your life in 2020 to herd.immunity@dazedmedia.com. Please note that you must be in the UK and willing to be photographed. By emailing the Herd Immunity email address, you agree that your details will be passed on to Alfie White, and consent to being contacted directly by him. Your data will not be retained by Dazed Media or used for any commercial purposes by Dazed Media or third parties.