Five years on from the height of the pandemic, a new photography exhibition is revisiting that period through the people who documented it as it happened. 'COVID-19 & Beyond', presented by the Photojournalism Hub at Sand End Arts & Community Centre in Fulham, brings together a wide group of international photographers whose work explores how the pandemic reshaped everyday life, and how uneven its impact really was.
The exhibition grew out of an open call launched during lockdown by curator and Photojournalism Hub director Cinzia D'Ambrosi. Now, for the first time, the resulting body of work is being shown together in a physical space, offering a chance to step back and reflect on images that were often created under extraordinary circumstances.
Rather than focusing on a single narrative of the pandemic, the exhibition pulls together perspectives from across communities and countries. Many of the featured photographers turned their attention to how COVID-19 exposed existing social fractures, from housing insecurity and immigration status to healthcare access, mental health, and freedom of expression.
For some photographers, the work is intensely local, documenting neighbourhood life in London during lockdowns; for others, it captures wider global realities. What ties the images together is a shared sense that the pandemic wasn't experienced equally, and that many of its consequences — economic, emotional and political — are still unfolding.
Alongside the photographs, the exhibition includes testimonies and reflections gathered through community workshops and a research-led online journal. The idea is less about offering a definitive account of the pandemic, and more about creating space to ask some bigger questions: what has changed since lockdown lifted, what inequalities were revealed, and what has quietly become normalised.
The exhibition runs for just a few days in mid-March, beginning with an evening opening event.