Talking with Pictures 2021 An intersectional illustration of female lived experiences during a global pandemic #ChooseToChallenge #InternationalWomensDay

Conceptualised and developed by Monica Thomas and Laura Shobiye

Prior to the pandemic, women’s relationship with the urban environment had mostly been marginalised in favour of grand narratives, birds-eye views, conquering the horizon, and universalising master planning. The pandemic has forced us all to inhabit a smaller corner of urban space and in our recurring daily walks along the same routes, we begin to notice the importance of seeing the detail in our immediate environment and value changes in texture and colour; the minute parts that make up our connection to our neighbourhoods. It is the details close-at-hand, through the women’s gaze, that build up an emotional relationship and a richness of experience that is all too often disregarded by those making choices about our towns and cities. A now much greater value is placed on this feeling-based relationship with place, created by a focused interest in the minutiae of what makes our

This portrait was done with fine liners & ink on watercolour paper & donated to the protagonist of the piece as thanks for her work in such difficult times.

Being a female researcher under COVID has allowed for ‘slow time’, cooking together with my daughter being a highlight as we tested out traditional British recipes. Being in the ‘now’ and reflecting on one’s own engagement with culture has impacted research positively as ‘embodied experience’.

This picture was taken when I contributed to and learnt with students in the Masters in Sustainability Science at the University of Malaya in 2019. This picture was shared already by Dr Zeeda, on FaceBook with permission.

I have tried to capture, in a single, simple image the many competing demands the pandemic placed on me, as a woman. I continued to be a researcher and a mother and have had to add teacher into that mix (at times). Lockdowns and restrictions have removed any separation between the various parts of my life. I have needed to be researcher, mother, teacher, and just myself, all in the same physical space and at the same time. My workspace has become a classroom at times. My kitchen has become a science lab and an art room. My fieldwork has been conducted from my home, from behind a computer or a telephone screen. For much of the year, all those things have been going on at the same time. I have had to function in multiple roles whilst my home serves multiple purposes – all simultaneously.

This photograph was taken of my denim jacket because I think it visually tells my story as a third year PhD student carrying out an Instagram protest study into the Body Positive Movement. I feel the snapshot presents an apt reflection of my feminist research, as badges have historically acted as vehicles for many movement mantras for decades. The pin badges pictured here were collected at archives, conferences, libraries, museums and talks I attended all around the UK; I have also used them in my teaching of activism, politics, and social justice modules to undergraduate students. Following the outbreak of COVID-19, the jacket didn't get to go out so much. Early 2020 became less about collecting badges, and more about collecting data, once my online survey into hashtag feminist behaviours went live.

This image is inspired by the interviews I have conducted remotely during lockdown with black mothers who have lived experience of imprisonment. During these conversations via zoom women have often described their experiences of being given hair and beauty products largely made for, and used by, white women during their time in prison. I decided to use the image of an afro comb to represent how the lack of culturally appropriate products can lead to black women in prison feeling alienated, ignored and othered.

Over the last year we have been working remotely with women who swim in rivers, lakes and seas across the UK to investigate the rejuvenating effects of cold water and the connections and communities that emerge in and around it. Together, we have shared some of the highs and lows of swimming through the pandemic, and while we have not been able to swim together, we have talked, sang songs, and made drawings, videos and photographs to share our experiences of swimming in cold waters. Wild swimming is a special part of these women’s lives, opening up new ways of seeing, feeling and being in the world and creating meaningful ties with each other and with the natural world. This photograph was taken by Nina on a disposable waterproof camera.

In my research about how people with lived experience of food insecurity participate within food partnerships across the UK, I noticed that most of the work (cooking, care, campaigning) is done by women. On top of that, they find time to participate in different research projects. Women of all ages also form the majority of food practitioners and academics in this field. On one hand their work needs to be celebrated, however, we need to also ask more questions about the power implications that go hand in hand with gendered care work and food work, and how not to reproduce existing extractive structures. I hope that feminist methodologies and ethics of care will help me to disentangle some of the power knots there.

During a year where we physically couldn’t go anywhere, I gained an otherworldly experience in all other ways possible: being a peer researcher for Race Alliance Wales. In some ways I was losing my reality, yet upon my journey was the discovery of something greater than reality which came with a sense of serenity. For the first time in forever, I felt like I could breathe, communicate and be with my kind. It was colourful - and in the colours there were our differences but it was all beautiful. Sometimes our differences can seek to threaten us but actually, I wonder if it brings us closer than we realise. Something that we can only dream of or think of as a child may actually be our reality if we choose to believe it, to pursue it. In being a researcher, I was pursuing a reality for us to find peace.

This photo was taken on a fairly typical day during lockdown while schools were closed and as I started my PhD, working from home in Wales. Here you can see us trying to meet the demands of the day at our shared workspace, 7 minutes before I was due to attend a Zoom meeting. From left to right you can see my cat sitting on the document I need for the meeting. On the larger monitor my son’s latest spellings to learn, my cold mug of tea, various post it notes with helpful reminders and to do lists, fluttering like Tibetan prayer flags. In the middle is my son, not looking at his spellings and some socks drying behind him. Towards the right are some books I’ve yet to start reading, a model of a park my son has yet to finish and finally on the floor, my abandoned trainers.

The first image shows Areema Nasreen, 36 years old British Pakistani nurse and mother of three. She worked as a hospital cleaner for 15 years old, then graduated to become one of the first nurses in the UK to die of COVID-19.

The second image shows two women one with hijab on the BBC website, with the headline “Coronavirus cases near 1.5 million worldwide”. Images of Muslim women, and even mosques, are unjustifiably used by the mainstream media in articles related to the increase of COVID-19 cases, which might increase the prejudice against Muslim women.

In October 2020, I started visiting my friend Angela’s garden specifically with the intention of photographing plants. Initially I viewed visits primarily as an artistic endeavour, with the bonus possibility of scarce human contact, albeit at a distance.

I discovered that after a friendship of twenty years, the opportunity to carefully observe Angela’s garden, together with discussions prompted by my photographs, has deepened my understanding of Angela and the way she lives. For example, I have gleaned further insights into her values and routines, as well as her relationships with the landscape surrounding her garden and the local community in which she lives. My visits have also provided us both with space to discuss our shifting senses of well-being during these turbulent times.

I have had the opportunity to re-remember the possibilities of bringing my lives as an ‘artist/maker’ and ‘researcher’ together and re-discover new ways of working.

The image illustrates the struggle that refugee and asylum-seeking mothers have faced during remote schooling without access to digital devices such as laptops, tablets and broadband. The image shows a mother using her phone, with limited data, to help her children do their homework during lockdown. The phone is their only digital device and access to the internet. The mother cannot afford to top up their phone as quickly as they use up the data to access online learning.

Special thanks to Rania Vamvaka