A PHOTOGRAPHER’S moving images of life in lockdown have been chosen to help illustrate how the country has experienced the current coronavirus pandemic.

Tristan Poyser, 40, is one of ten contemporary artists whose work has been added to the Historic England Archive as part of the Picturing Lockdown Collection.

This follows a national week-long call out where the public were asked to share images that document their experience of seven days in lockdown from April 29 – May 5, which resulted in nearly 3,000 submissions from across England.

The final collection of 200 images consists of public submissions, newly commissioned works by ten contemporary artists and the remainder from Historic England’s photographers.

Five images from Tristan will enter the Archive after he documented his work at the huge Amazon ‘fulfilment centre’ in Over Hulton, where he took a job after his work as a self-employed photographer disappeared overnight.

“I had a contract to photograph Major League Baseball when it came to London and that was cancelled so it was a case of applying for the job with Amazon,” said Tristan. “I was apprehensive, but the people there were really supportive. I hurt my hand there on the first day when I was trying to pack too quickly and everyone was so nice.”

Tristan’s work saw him focus on his and his colleagues’ feelings and experiences as part of the temporary staff working nights at the centre.

“It was a case of documenting what the everyday person was thinking and feeling about lockdown and giving them a voice and an opportunity,” he said.

“Everyone was wearing face masks and in many ways you lose your identity and we were having to communicate using body language.”

Based in Swindon, Historic England Archive includes over 12 million photographs, drawings, reports and publications from the 1850s to the present day.