Lockdown? Let's make it cinematic

I usually take photos on the streets, but because of the pandemic, the streets are deserted. When Ireland started to impose strict measures to prevent Covid-19, I decided to take photos of the people I see every day: my parents. I built the backgrounds and stories around them and made them the main characters in the series.

I was fascinated by the monotony of family life amid the pandemic. I discovered that even the smallest details in every color and daily activity can become masterpieces amidst that monotony.

When I started this project, I read an article that people often daydream about nostalgic thoughts as a form of escapism. I also wanted to use that nostalgia as a way to forget the stress of the pandemic in my project.

Growing up in Ireland in the 1990s, I always saw Catholic images in people’s homes. They fascinated me, amazed me, and left me speechless. I remember looking at them and wondering who they were. The use of Catholic images in my work is not evangelical, it is neutral. Many people find them comforting.

- Enda Burke.

Enda Burke spent the lockdown at home with his parents in Galway on the west coast of Ireland. A street photographer, with the streets shut down, he decided to include the people closest to him in his artwork, turning their everyday stories into a classic photo series calledHomebound With My Parents(At home with parents). The photo series later won many photography awards and was released as limited edition postcards.

The colorful backdrops, staged in a classic style and the "carefree" expressions of the two main characters, make the photo series come alive and artistic in a very unique way. Bright, vibrant colors - cotton candy pink, sunflower yellow and emerald green - appear in every frame as an "antidote to the gloom brought by Covid-19". It is an attempt at "vibrancy, humor, a form of escapism", as Enda shares. To get these bright shots, he ransacked the family home and meticulously decorated every detail himself. He ordered vintage items online, put up wallpaper and gave his parents new "roles".

When asked about his parents' reaction to this "unwilling assignment", the 33-year-old photographer replied that his parents were very easy-going and they had a lot of laughs together during the photo shoot. "I told them,Now my parents are actors, I'm acting, the audience likes that kind of thing." - he recounts. Enda says he is fascinated by "the monotony of family life during the pandemic", but in the journey of creating these colorful photos, life seems to have noa bit monotonousany.

The main character in the photoTesco Value Dad(Dad Drinking Tesco Value Beer) is a witty image of a dad with a blank face, a cigarette in one hand and a can of Tesco Value beer in the other. Jesus is preaching on a wall photo, while Dad is watching a travelogue about Miami on TV. Tinsel is wrapped around the table and a plate of Brussels sprouts is within reach - the picture tells the story of a Christmas day in lockdown.

In the pictureMam Lifting Weights(Mother Lifting Weights), a statue of the Virgin Mary standing on a table in front of a pink curtain, with her mother holding a pill in her mouth while lifting weights. It looks like she would rather lift a beer can at her feet than lift the weights in her hands. Enda shared that he "read that the rate of home exercise has skyrocketed recently". But he also confirmed that his mother had never been to a gym in her life. "She loved art and interior design, she was just a housewife".

PhotoDad Ironing Some Socks(Dad is a sock) symbolises the futility of social distancing. Above Dad's head is a picture of Pope John Paul II. According to Enda, the picture is there for sentimental reasons, "My parents got married on the day Pope John Paul came to Galway, September 1979 - his visit was a huge event."

Our hair keeps growing in all these silly ways because we've been home for so long and can't go to the hairdresser. So Mom does Dad's hair herself. But not only does he get a haircut, he wants a perm too. The photoDad Under Hairdryer Reading a Newspaper(Dad Reads the Newspaper While Drying His Hair) was born after Enda found a 1950s hair dryer on Craigslist in Ireland.

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