• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer
  • Accessibility options
University of Brighton
  • About us
  • Business and
    employers
  • Alumni and
    supporters
  • For
    students
  • For
    staff
  • Accessibility
    options
Open menu
Home
Home
  • Close
  • Study here
    • Courses and subjects
    • Find a course
    • A-Z course list
    • Explore our subjects
    • Academic departments
    • Visiting the university
    • Explore: get to know us
    • Upcoming events
    • Virtual tours
    • Chat to our students and staff
    • Open days
    • Applicant days
    • Order a prospectus
    • Ask a question
    • Studying here
    • Accommodation and locations
    • Applying
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate
    • Transferring from another university
    • The Student Contract
    • Clearing
    • International students
    • Fees and finance
    • Advice and help
    • Advice for students
    • Advice for parents and carers
    • Advice for schools and teachers
    • Managing your application
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate
    • Apprenticeships
  • Research
    • Research and knowledge exchange
    • Research and knowledge exchange organisation
    • The Global Challenges
    • Centres of Research Excellence (COREs)
    • Research Excellence Groups (REGs)
    • Our research database
    • Information for business
    • Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP)
    • Postgraduate research degrees
    • PhD research disciplines and programmes
    • PhD funding opportunities and studentships
    • How to apply for your PhD
    • Research environment
    • Investing in research careers
    • Strategic plan
    • Research concordat
    • News, events, publications and films
    • Featured research and knowledge exchange projects
    • Research and knowledge exchange news
    • Inaugural lectures
    • Research and knowledge exchange publications and films
    • Academic staff search
  • About us
  • Business and employers
  • Alumni, supporters and giving
  • Current students
  • Staff
  • Accessibility
Search our site
Aerial view of the Moulsecoomb campus
About us
  • Your university
  • Governance and structure
  • Working with us
  • Statistics and legal
  • News and events
  • Contact us
  • News and events
    • News and events
    • News
    • Events
    • Coronavirus
    • Livestream
    • Open lectures
    • Term dates
  • News
    • News
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013

Brighton academic sheds light on Historic England lockdown photo project

University of Brighton's Bella Pollen has teamed up with Historic England to explore pictures taken by the public during the first 2020 lockdown.

24 September 2021

The Picturing Lockdown project asked the public to submit photographic depictions of lockdown during April and May 2020, recording an unprecedented moment in an accessible way. Historic England - a public body that cares for the country’s historic environment – received around 3,000 photographs, with 100 selected to enter the organisation's archive collection.

Working with colleagues in the Photography and the Archive Research Centre at London's University of the Arts, Dr Pollen – Reader in History of Art and Design, and also Director of the university's Centre for Design History - has published a report which examines some of the striking imagery produced by the public.

Picturing Lockdown - credit to Historic England Archive - photographer Shireen Bahmanizad

Picturing Lockdown, Historic England Archive, photographer Shireen Bahmanizad

Dr Bella Pollen

Dr Bella Pollen

Her exploration of Picturing Lockdown builds on Dr Pollen's previous work on mass-participation photography projects from the 1980s onward, chronicled in her 2015 book Mass Photography: Collective Histories of Everyday Life, which received a paperback publication earlier this year.

Dr Pollen said: “I was really pleased to be asked to undertake this analysis and to put my research into historic mass-participation photography to contemporary use. There has been a huge flowering of participatory public history projects during 2020 and 2021 as people yearn to try to make sense of unprecedented experiences under COVID, and to record images for posterity.

“Many of these projects use photography as a tool to communicate complex feelings, and through my experience analysing large scale photographic archives and public participation projects, I can help make sense of these materials now and for the future."

Back to top
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn icon

Contact us

University of Brighton
Mithras House
Lewes Road
Brighton
BN2 4AT

Main switchboard 01273 600900

Course enquiries

Sign up for updates

University contacts

Report a problem with this page

Quick links Quick links

  • Courses
  • Open days
  • Order a prospectus
  • Academic departments
  • Academic staff
  • Professional services departments
  • Jobs
  • Privacy and cookie policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Libraries
  • Term dates
  • Maps
  • Graduation
  • Site information
  • Online shop
  • COVID-19

Information for Information for

  • Current students
  • International students
  • Media/press
  • Careers advisers/teachers
  • Parents/carers
  • Business/employers
  • Alumni/supporters
  • Suppliers
  • Local residents