Anand Chhabra was commissioned by Historic England to document the effects of COVID-19 for 7 days (please see 7 Days with COVID-19 https://www.bcva.info/7-days-with-covid19) . He was chosen as one of 10 regional photographers all working under social distancing regulations. This meant at the time of the commission Anand could only photograph within a radius of 500 meters of his home - and then only submitting a single image to Historic England at the end of each day.
The most important aspect for Anand was the unintentional way his photographs began to reveal how the disease was affecting those from the BAME community. Anand’s photographs show the extent at which people were impacted by the pandemic. Jaminder Singh, for example, who had recently had major heart surgery was at a local supermarket, 200 meters from Anand’s home in Wolverhampton and astonishingly fully clad in PPE. A couple of days later Anand photographed at the allotments near his home as part of the commision and took a portrait of Jenny Mclean a Jamaican lady who had lost her best friend of 33 years. She spoke to Anand about being at the funeral the day before which she described was an emotionally sickening event for her.
Anand Chhabra’s image (main centre) commissioned by Historic England used by National Press to report on COVID-19 affecting BAME communities in UK.