Malaysian-born photographer captures lives of people in lockdown in Australia

Although it was just a quick five-minute photo shoot, the people that Sanjeev photographed had a lot of fun being part of Housebound - A Portrait Project in Isolation.

When the lockdown in Melbourne Australia, where he resides, was imposed about six weeks ago, Malaysian-born photographer Sanjeev Singh found himself pretty much jobless: all his scheduled photo shoots were cancelled.

This left Sanjeev with a lot of free time on his hands – time which he decided to spend doing the one thing he loves best: storytelling.

"As a portrait photographer, I love the opportunity to tell stories through my work. I wanted to do something meaningful with my time and use my craft too. Press photographers were already doing a fantastic job documenting the grimness of the pandemic by photograohing scenes of empty cities and packed hospitals. But this lockdown is going to impact everyone and I wanted to capture how people are coping with it," says Sanjeev, 43.

That's how "Housebound - A Portrait Project in Isolation" was born.

"I initially roped in a few friends and my brother's family to do some initial shots to experiment with the concept. And I remember a friend remarking how she never thought that a five-minute photo shoot in her driveway with her two children was going to be the highlight of her day.

"It struck me then that this photo shoot could be something that people would look forward to and have a bit of fun with – if that meant they could take their minds off the grim news for a while, then we are already winning," shares Sanjeev who has been a professional photographer since 2014.

So, with a handful of stories and photos (taken with his Canon 5D MKIV), he launched the project on a Facebook page. In three weeks, he'd shot 25 stories and his page has attracted some 400 followers without any paid advertising.

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"Essentially, the concept is to photograph people, be it families, couples, individuals, in front of their house, taken from a safe distance to keep to the social distancing measures. I left it to the participants how they wanted to present themselves.

"This lockdown is going to impact everyone and I wanted to capture how people are coping with it," says Sanjeev.

So far, people have responded very positively to it. I generally approach people ahead of time, explain the concept to them and then organise a time for me to drive by their homes and photograph them.

"I either then just interview them across the fence or email them some questions that helps me form the narrative that accompanies the image," says Sanjeev who worked as a reporter with The Star briefly in the late 1990s before moving to Perth to further his studies.

He moved to Melbourne 12 years ago and started doing photography full time six years ago.

Last year, Sanjeev held his first solo portrait exhibition and became a finalist for the National Photographic Portrait Prize by the National Portrait Gallery. He was also finalist of the 2019 Martin Kantor Portrait Prize at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

Sanjeev says that being able to tell people's stories during the lockdown has been meaningful for him during this uncertain time - though he's a photographer, he sees himself as a storyteller and this was an opportunity for him to share stories of the people in his community.

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"Honestly, I had no idea what to expect when I came up with this idea. And I know it's not the most original idea as there are so many other photographers all over the world doing something similar.

"But I don't consider myself as just a photographer, but more of a storyteller. Yes I do commercial photography to pay the bills but I really enjoy the visual narrative of being able to bring stories to people through my craft.

"So while I've lost my income for the time being, the ironic thing is that it's allowed me the time to indulge more in the kind of photography that I really enjoy. I've enjoyed the conversations that I've been able to have with people over the fences or gate and meeting people from all walks of life and learning their stories.

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"It's given me something meaningful to work on while we ride this wave of uncertain times. It's interesting because I think the stories will change as the weeks go into months. I'd like to turn it into a book or an exhibition, perhaps collaborating with other photographers.

"I think this body of work from photographers all over the world will form an important visual history of this unprecedented time," he says, adding that he intends to go on for "as long as I can".