1,000 Miles (Lockdown)

Like many of us, during the Covid-19 pandemic I had a lot of time for self-reflection and ‘walking’ – the daily allowance of exercise that became essential for our wellbeing.

I set myself a target of walking from and back to my house to place i’d never had time to examine, circuits of my local area, journeying at least 10 miles a day. Some days, I walked back at dusk – not wanting to let go of the day’s freedom.

I started to re-engage with my local area, the walks: looking for the escape as well as familiarity, some certainty with an uncertain period, I made my photographic response using that ubiquitous modern technology – the mobile phone.

My ancient Samsung Galaxy S7 freed me from both the accusatory stares and the guilt of having more freedoms than those people who were isolated whilst being ‘shielded’.

I stopped counting after 1,000 miles – after 500 miles, I entered that period where the novelty of being on furlough and living a more simple, tethered-peripatetic existence had worn off…

A thousand miles (the first five hundred were the most interesting).

(dFlip book best viewed in ‘Double page’ mode, where possible)