Claudia Leisinger

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London. I have been fascinated with this place for a few years now. it is wild and, on the edges, abandoned, littered and desolate but once inside I feel like I am in an exciting wilderness.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

In Common; A series of photographs about what I encounter on my way to and during my walks on Mitcham Common in South London.

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

“Modern Hunter Gatherers” my portrait series and visual response to the Covid-19 lockdown in London. The Covid-19 lockdown meant that basics, like acquiring food suddenly needed to be revised. The panic buying and empty shop shelves triggered a very primal instinct within me. I started to network, grow vegetables, stand in online queues for hours … I spent so much time in pursuit of necessities that I started to feel like a hunter. Customer queues in supermarket car parks – all standing ready with masks, gloves, bags, disinfectant wipes – they too reminded me of hunter gatherers, ready with their tools to collect berries, gather wood and defend themselves against threats. It is the shift in priority caused by the virus that made these two very different moments in time close in on each other. I photographed these people in my makeshift black back drop “studio” with natural light. I wanted each one of them to be isolated in this black space with not much definition because everything feels yet undefined and unclear. We are apart and yet we have never in my lifetime had more obvious proof on just how connected we are. This virus is affecting us all. All photographs have been taken in London between the 28.05 – 26.06 2020

Claudia Leisinger

Claudia Leisinger is an award-winning photographer & multimedia creator. In 2007 she completed her MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the LCC with the story “Bhutan, A Country in Transition”, documenting Bhutan’s shift towards its first-ever democratic elections.

Since then she has been working as a portrait & documentary photographer and filmmaker for newspapers, magazines, charities, foundations, commercial clients, artists and galleries.

Throughout her photography practice she continually works on self-initiated long-term projects, returning often to themes of migration, employment and environmental changes.

Like in “The Last of the Billingsgate Fish Porters”, a multimedia piece on the corporate extinguishing of a centuries-old work trade in the City of London. (Published in the Guardian UK, selected for Night Contact, London’s first Multimedia Festival, and exhibited in a solo exhibition in Switzerland)

Or “Europe Revisited” her recent work documenting six Serbian Roma families traditionally ostracised, but for the last two years taking part in a national (and E.U. membership-driven) initiative to improve their substandard housing. (Shortlisted and honourably mentioned in the Marilyn Stafford Foto Reportage Award 2018, exhibited in Marginal, a group exhibition in London)

Two portraits, one from each story named above, have just recently been selected in the Portrait of Humanity Shortlist 2020.

Her body of work expresses her passion to advocate for a society that not only accepts those with different lifestyles but also one that respects their contribution to the whole – even if this contribution isn’t always an obvious one.

In this portfolio on Shutterhub she will show images from her most recent portrait series  “Modern Hunter Gatherer” which she photographed as a direct reaction to  the coronavirus lockdown between May and June 2020 and a selection of images from her ongoing project called “InCommon”, all about what she encounters while walking on her local common in South London.

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