“Still Lives” is a photographic collaboration between two architectural photographers. Scott Hargis, based in Oakland, California, and Mike Kelley, based in Los Angeles, are documenting the architecture of “shelter in place” by using videoconference software to conduct remote photoshoots of people’s homes around the world.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced billions of people around the world into varying degrees of social distancing, self-isolation, and quarantine. While the basic experience of “stay-at-home” living is easily translatable from one culture to another, the physical environments are unique to each individual. This photo essay seeks to explore the effect that one’s environment has on the otherwise unifying experience of self-isolation.
During live video calls, Kelley and Hargis direct their subjects to precisely place their laptop or phone so that the image is perfectly composed. Then, working with the available light, they call for curtains to be opened or closed, and lights turned on and off, etc., until the exposure is optimal. When every element is complete, a screen shot is made to capture the image.
These intimate photographs carry the video graininess and digital blur we’ve come to associate with communication during social distancing, but they also contain an authentic record of life during the pandemic. The images are instantly relatable, even as the diversity of the physical environments becomes apparent.
The subjects range from a middle-class neighborhood of Lagos Nigeria, to a small village in Greenland, as well as cities such as New York, Sydney, Bordeaux, Auckland, and Rio de Janeiro. Luxury high-rise condos in Dubai appear alongside a tent on the streets of Oakland. Whimsical scenes and boisterous children compare with quiet moments of introspection.