Frankie McAllister

Frankie McAllister is a London based photographer from Northern Ireland.  She works primarily in remote, urban and industrial scenes in a style somewhere on the convergence of landscape and documentary photography. She has a particular interest in altered landscapes and the influence of man on nature, especially in fragile regions and seeks out those random scenes, natural or otherwise,  that appear to have been arranged almost as tableaux.

Closed for Business – Outside In: Is a series of glimpses through the window of the shops, pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers still shut down under Lockdown 3.  For a lot of businesses, this has been the cruellest lockdown – many will have spent the restricted period in November preparing for some kind of a Christmas season – not a normal one obviously but at least a chance to claw back a little income to help stay afloat.  They invested scarce resources in hygiene equipment, screens, sanitising stations, Christmas decorations and stock,  so the awful news in December that rocketing infections and hospitalisations necessitated another immediate lockdown, must have been a bitter blow.

Some of the images peer into the murky depths of unlit shops, some capture the sunlight streaming across oblivious floors and some catch the window reflections bouncing back fragments of everyday life, still carrying on after a fashion despite everything, and contrasting with the stillness of the interiors.   It’s clear from the emptied shelves and piles of mail at the door, that some businesses have come to the end of the road. Others have cleared their shelves and stacked their chairs, looking toward an optimistic although uncertain future and others, particularly hotels, have been kept lit and dressed in a state of suspended animation, like theatre sets, looking as though they will be repopulated at any second.

be keeping things in

Locations: London

Categories: Documentary, Fine Art, Landscape, Nature, Photographer, Photojournalism, Travel