Stills of a Lockdown City

An exhibition in a tenement garden of new work by 

Brian Hartley and Dylan Lombard.

The Covid-19 pandemic represents a moment in time when we were forced to recognise the fragility of the lives that we lead. The routine, the familiar, the things we simply 

accepted and took for granted were suddenly changed and we were confronted with a new and uncertain reality. This exhibition of photographs taken during the lockdown of 2020 provide a snapshot of that changed and unique landscape. The eye of the photographer can capture what most of us cannot see – a mood, a feeling, an emotion – and offers a perspective that allows us to make more sense of the world around us.

The decision to hold the exhibition in a tenement garden was not taken out of necessity with the closure of gallery spaces. Instead, it reflects one of the more positive things to emerge from the pandemic: a willingness for people to come together to share and 

experience things as neighbours and as part of a community. Both photographers 

embrace that idea and the images they have captured in that sense belong, and are 

relevant, to all of us. 

’Every picture tells a story’ but that story is told in different ways – all of Dylan Lombard’s photographs were shot in black and white and only during the day while Brian Hartley’s are in colour and shot during day and night. Neither photographer had met before the idea of curating an exhibition of their work was put to them.