This instalment in our photography series is perhaps the most powerful. The talented Katy has captured what Oxford looks like as lockdown restrictions are being lifted.
These photos are moving and emotional and we are beyond happy to share them with you.
"Walking through the streets of Oxford on the day the non-essential shops opened was a day like no other. Having been a student in this city for 3 years, I was used to the hustle and bustle that Oxford typically offered. Masses of tourists would crowd around famous buildings, students would be rushing from place to place and coffee shops would always be heaving. However today was different. The tourists were gone, the students had left and the coffee shops were shut. The buzz of Oxford had vanished."
The famous sights such as the Bodelian Library and the Radcliffe Camera were eerily empty. The bikes that usually peppered the streets had disappeared along with the people, filling the streets with only silence.
The shopping streets were different. There were people, there was some life! However, it was by no means what it used to be. There were social distancing warnings on all of the roads, many people wore surgical masks, and police were monitoring each corner.
It was unusual. Some people adhered strictly to the social distancing measures, following the one-way routes, keeping their distance and wearing masks- but others didn’t. It was as if half the world was living in the present and half were living in the past, before Covid-19 existed.
This experience made me realise how far we have left to go before we can exist how we once did, if we ever return to that way of living at all!
This was a day I’ll never forget. It was a little snippet of having our normal society back, despite it being so different to what we know as ‘normal’.
Katy Keighley