Something that was so familiar becomes distant
Something that was so familiar becomes distant
by Jermaine Francis
© Jermaine Francis
This image was taken by Francis as part of his ‘lockdown journal’, Something that was so familiar becomes distant. Each week he walked the streets of London making photographic notations of often unremarkable or ordinary interactions and observations, in the completely unprecedented and extraordinary period. These were published online each week by Beauty Papers with a playlist devised by Francis. This photograph was made on the Holloway road in North London and highlights the underlying incongruity of the ‘new normal’. As the woman rests on an armchair outside a furniture shop, the pattern and vibrancy of her headwrap and dress are in contrast to the ubiquity of her blue disposable face mask – an urban emblem of life in the pandemic.
Jermaine Francis undertook foundation studies at Walsall College of Art before gaining a BA (Hons) degree in Photographic Studies from Derbyshire University. His work has been seen in publications including British Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and The Face and has been included in exhibitions including The Invisibles in conjunction with I-D (2019) and ICP Concerned curated by David Campany at the International Centre of Photography (2020). Francis was previously selected for inclusion in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize in 2016 and 2019.