Summary

One of a series of photographs documenting the modification and adaptation of home spaces for work, study and leisure during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Ruth Hazleton and her family have their home set up for two people working day jobs, a school space for their son, and spaces for music rehearsal and online broadcasts. Ruth is a children's play and folklore specialist and a musician. Bill is a musician, and has managed to record most of an album while in lockdown. Their son is a primary school student. The photographs include activites such as baking and play.

The photographs were taken by Museums Victoria photographer Jon Augier, part of a project to document the experiences of Victorians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ruth explains: 'These images were taken in the front room of our house. It was traditionally the 'music room' but has also become B's work space and a recording studio during lockdown. B works full-time for an academic publishing company and has been able to work from home during lockdown. In addition to our other employment, we are both self-employed professional musicians. Lockdown has been an extremely difficult time for our industry and sector. We are lucky in that we've been able to maintain an income. Many of our friends and colleagues who work throughout the arts industry have been badly impacted by the pandemic; venues and festivals were among the first wave of shutdowns and will remain closed well after other workplaces have re-opened. We, like everybody else, have had numerous concerts and festival engagements cancelled and sadly, cancellations continue as the weeks and months go by.

'Arts workers are a resourceful community, however, so we've utilised our skillsets and adapted to the situation as best we can. B had started work on a new album just prior to lockdown and decided to complete it using the equipment we have available to us at home. Suffice to say it's been a big learning curve, but with the help of his producer, B has created a wonderful new work that will be ready to release sometime in the future.'

Description of Content

Man playing guitar with microphone and laptop computer.

Physical Description

Born Digital Image.

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