Participant Photo Journals

Picturing life in a pandemic

Our researchers asked their interviewees across the world to submit pictures to illustrate their everyday lives in a pandemic. The images and insights into how Covid-19 affects people’s lives are being used by our researchers to understand changes in their practices.

Explore participants’ stories

Feel free to explore the profile* of each participant and their photo journal gallery. By clicking on the images in each participant’s photo gallery below, you can read what participants wrote along with the pictures they took.

Double click on the images and find the participant text in the comments.

Please note that not all participants have provided comments/descriptions provided by participants.

*Within the profiles provided, the caricatures of participants on this page are not representative of the individuals; the drawings do not intend or attempt to portray any likeness to the participant in order to preserve their anonymity.

Ireland
Participant 6

Single Mother (aged 32), with 3 year old daughter living in temporarily mobile home in Galway (Ireland); knowledge worker/manager of tech online digital education company working full time (home office during lockdown); Recently separated from father of her child and now in a relatively new long distance relationship with boyfriend living in Scotland

France
Participant 7

Male (aged 75), retired, living in Paris. He broke his femoral neck before the lockdown so had to do physiotherapy sessions. Lives alone and does some work as secretary of a theater company. Has a medium income and lives a relatively stable life

Norway Participant 5

Woman (aged 35) living with her husband and three young children in a house in a remote area of outer Oslo (Norway), in the middle of a forest area.

She works as a project manager and is a part-time student. Both her and her husband work from home. Two of her children are in school and one in kindergarten.

The participant included a short textual summary (right) of her photo journal but did not provide descriptions for individual images.

Participant photo journal summary “We kept close watch over the pond in the garden, from the snow melted, the ice melted, the frogs came and laid tadpoles, the flowers appeared, the bikes were taken out. Many outdoor lunches with a fire, and lots of time together in nature. The children slept in a lavvo [large tent] in the garden in March.”

Switzerland
Participant 7

Male (aged 28) – single. Living in flatshare with 6 others in Geneva, with access to shared spaces and a rooftop.

He has a post-graduate degree and is a student (changing career path) and a research assistant. His income range can be considered as lower. During the lockdown, he was studying and working from home. He claims to be very concerned for the environment.

Switzerland Participant 6

Woman (aged 31), unemployed, living with her older sister in a two bedroom apartment in Geneva (Switzerland). The building has a shared garden

She has a postgraduate degree and is part time Master’s student. Her sister is an executive in the public sector and is considered as upper income. Both of them have been studying or working from home during the lockdown.

Norway Participant 15

Woman (aged 25), student with part-time office work, living in flat share with two other students in central Oslo (Norway). She has both studied and worked from home most of the period.

Netherlands Participant 1

Man (aged 25), student living in city center in shared house. The interviewee suffered from coronavirus and was self-isolating for two weeks his housemates needing to cook and take care of him during this time he felt that the virus made it more difficult to exercise afterwards as well, so he walked much more.

Netherlands Participant 11

Woman (aged 27), student living in city center. She works at a cheese stand in a local market. Had to move houses during the pandemic and went from living with her boyfriend to living alone. She continued to follow her studies online during the height of the pandemic.