Belgium was officially locked down on 18 March. We went indoors and stayed there. We stopped going to work. We stopped going to school. When we had to, we hurried out to the shops, but as soon as we could we hurried back home again. Brussels’ 1.3 million inhabitants were confined, and the additional 350,000 who normally commute into the city each day were asked to stay where they were.
Brussels was transformed. Immediately we noticed how quiet it was, and how clear the air was. And once we’d got over our initial panic, we established new routines. Those who could worked from home in casual clothes. We dug out old sets of Monopoly and long-forgotten jigsaw puzzles. We kept in touch with friends and lovers via Instagram and TikTok. We learned how to use Zoom and Jitsi, and got in touch with people we hadn’t seen in decades. We washed our windows.
And we started to inhabit our streets in a new way. We greeted neighbours and even total strangers. Bonjour jeune homme. Bonjour madame. Goedemorgen meneer. Can I help you? After all, we were all living through something remarkable, strange and difficult. We were being asked to stay inside, but when we did venture out we tended to linger – at a safe distance, of course – to ask one another’s news and exchange views on the government’s handling of the crisis. Children rode their scooters down the middle of the street. The cars had gone!
On 21 April, I was approached by a German photographer, Oliver Heinl, inviting me to take part in a Europe-wide project to document the Covid-19 lockdown. Oliver’s idea is to collaborate with one photographer in each of Europe’s 47 capital cities. He gave us ‘carte blanche’ to approach the project in any way we wanted. Each will submit six images to create a record of the European lockdown. He hopes to mount a travelling exhbition and (if he can attract funding) a publication.
All my planned jobs had been cancelled as soon as the lockdown began and I’d received no enquiries since then. So I was thrilled to be working on a real project again. I ventured out for a series of short walkabouts in my own neighbourhood of Ixelles, and I also shot people passing in my street from my front window. I explained the project to almost everybody I photographed and they loved the idea. I’ve submitted my contributions and the first photographs are already online. You can check them out on the LOCKDOWN Europe website as the project progresses.