Something Good: A New Type of Photography

Tell me something good … 

For many, it’s not so easy to go out and do photography now. Landscape and still life are probably OK but street photography is ill-advised and studio shoots are really not essential.   So what’s a professional photographer to do?

One photographer in Canada has found a new type of portrait photography. Commissioned photos  of people isolated in their homes, behind windows and doors.

“When business recently dried up for Whitehorse photographer Alistair Maitland because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he realized he needed to come up with something else.

“I am a portrait and event photographer, and of course there’s no more events, so there’s no more business,” he said.

“So I was trying to think of different ways to be, I guess, a little bit more entrepreneurial.”

Now he’s doing a brisk business in doorway portraits, or what he calls “door-traits” — shots of people and families in their homes, self-isolating and maintaining social distance. He stays outside while his subjects stand in the doorway or look out through a window.”

“There’s definitely a demand. People want this,” Maitland said.

“This is actually just a fun thing to do, something to break up the days and whatnot. But I also think people are quite aware of the situation that we’re living in and want to have themselves documented in this time, with their families.”

– CBC News, posted March 24, 2020

I’m not going to be practicing door-traiture myself. Lurking around my neighbors’ door and window will probably get me arrested. But it’s nice to see creativity alive and well, even in these trying times.

Toronto, Canada. March 2020