Living with COVID-19 in Australia: the first year in photos

COVID novelty socks for sale, Inner South Canberra (December 2020)

As a social researcher who has specialised in writing about medicine and health for decades, I have engaged in many COVID-19-related projects this year. These include writing an initial agenda for social research on COVID and some commentary on this blog (here and here), recording some talks (here), coordinating a registry of Australian social research on COVID, putting together a topical map of COVID social research, publishing two articles in The Conversation (here and here) and developing the open access resource Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic document.

I’ve also edited a special section of Health Sociology Review and a co-edited a book on the social aspects of COVID as well as co-authoring a book on face masks in the time of COVID, a report on marginalised communities’ trust in digital health data (including COVID-related data) and an article on people’s use of digital technologies for sociality and intimacy in a Media International Australia special COVID issue.

Another initiative I undertook as a form of documentation of life during COVID in 2020 was using my smartphone to photograph everyday experiences from my own perspective and in the areas in which I live and work (in Sydney and Canberra). I’ve taken 100 photographs and have now uploaded them to Flickr as an open access resource, available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike (CC-BY-SA) license. Here’s just a small selection.

IMG_2161
Sign in public toilet at UTS Sydney campus (December 2020)
IMG_0206
Front page of The Canberra Times warning of ‘Christmas chaos’ due to outbreak of COVID on Sydney’s Northern Beaches (December 2020)
IMG_2158
Sign on Sydney City train (December 2020)
IMG_1917
Supermarket signs in Sydney City (July 2020)
IMG_1823
Petrol station signs in Inner South Canberra (April 2020)
IMG_1924
An empty Sydney Opera House forecourt during the first national lockdown (July 2020)
IMG_1796 (1) - Copy - Copy
Toilet paper shortages in Coles, Inner South Canberra (April 2020)

One thought on “Living with COVID-19 in Australia: the first year in photos

Leave a comment