“Coronadaheim” COVID19 photo-project from Vorarlberg, Austria with the Nikon Z6 & 24-70mm f/4 lens is by Oliver Lerch (Website | Instagram):
It’s somehow funny for me to have my project shown here on NikonRumors because I had the initial idea after I saw the street photography project by Brian Homer from Birmingham just here at Nikonrumors. So I thought about creating a documentation about people here in Vorarlberg, the most western part of Austria. I am a professional photographer doing mostly sports and press photography and I was currently jobless because of the restrictions of the Austrian government regarding the corona-virus.
My goal was to do it a little different than the project of Biran Homer or other photographers. I wanted to show people in their real everyday life with corona and the associated restrictions as simple as it is and was. So I started to use Facebook as my platform to look for people who would let me take pictures of what they just do every day. It should be simple and plain – no posing, no installations. Many people responded to my postings and therefore it took me several days to drive through Vorarlberg – on quiet empty streets. The pictures I was able to take just show, what people did and do in their isolation.
When thinking about which gear I should use, I decided to take my Nikon Z6 with the Z 24-70mm/4.0. First of all, it was the perfect chance to test this combination. On the other hand, I had to reduce all my costs dramatically and the insurance for my D5 and my D850 with all my lenses is restricted to my home address at the moment. I was quite surprised about how fast I got familiar with the Z6 and about the good quality of the pictures. It verified what I like to say to people who ask me about what is the best camera – it’s always the one you are used to and know what to do without thinking too much about how to handle it. What I also love about the Z6 is to use the monitor to get different angles.
When thinking about how to present my project, I had help from two friends of mine: communication expert Sabine Grohs helped with the naming, which finally was “coronadaheim”, which means “corona-at-home”. Web developer Phuc Le, who designed and programmed my own homepage, offered to create a homepage for me. He had the wonderful idea of designing the pictures as postcards. This helped me a lot to tell the stories of the people in the pictures because I asked them to write something about the situation I was allowed to take a photo of them.
The project never was made for earning money with it, I just wanted to be and show a part of the life of people in our county during the restrictions. I show all the pictures on www.coronadaheim.at and on social media: On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/oliverlerch2444) I chose to make a square version in black and white, on Facebook and the homepage there is another picture in “postcard-aspect-ratio” in color.
I was also lucky to present my project within an art-project form and for artists, which was streamed and still can be seen on youtube, also the local newspapers presented some of the pictures and even the local radio station made an interview with me about everything.
The project is still open, although a lot of the restrictions are already partially loosened. So I am still looking for people – as long as Corona and COVID19 limit and restrict our lives – and I can participate in their everyday life during this time. At the end, I am dreaming about an exhibition or a book to present, what people in Vorarlberg did during corona-restrictions.
