Meet The Photographer Capturing Life In Lockdown Around Ireland In A Special Way

Ruth Medjbur is a music photographer and has toured with Arcade Fire and Hozier and she nailed down her dream job of shooting the Pyramid Stage for the BBC at Glastonbury

Then Covid struck.

Ruth struggled at the beginning of lockdown because she would normally be out working most nights at gigs but that whole industry stopped. 

That's when Ruth started working on Twilight Together, a book containing photographs of 150 window portraits and with it, a record of life in lockdown.

It features all the milestones of those months in lockdown – Cocooners, Women pregnant, women who had babies, Black Lives Matter, People who had weddings cancelled, people who were grieving.

 

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Tiny, cosy cottage windows keeping everyone snug inside. Huge windows from which you could watch the moonlight as it bounces off the bay. Clifden had it all. 🏠When I visited Connemara it was the height of lockdown and the hottest day of the year. There were no shops open or ice cream vans. There were no tourists and no pints of Creamy G or even a sneaky bag of chips to be had anywhere. The whole town smelled of fresh paint as B&B owners spruced up their windowsills and doorframes, making use of the quiet spell, hoping that ends soon. 🌙I drove from window to window in the evening and was met with glorious smiles and well wishes from within. I raced through this whole project, shooting all 150 households in just under three months (I was afraid that lockdown would end and I'd have no one to photograph). I left Clifden that night thinking I'd like pop back and stay for while when lockdown was long over. Needless to say, it's still on my wish list. Maybe next year. x⭐ I'd like to thank my dear friend, @aoifemcelwain for connecting me with all of my new friends in Connemara and for reminding me to breath. x #twilighttogether

A post shared by Ruthless Imagery (@ruthlessimagery) on Oct 16, 2020 at 10:22am PDT

Her first picture was a test run with friends Paul, Maeve & Baby Beth. She put the first 16 portraits up on Insta and the response was a full page in the Irish Times, a piece by CNN & 400 emails from families in her 2km radius. 

All the pictures were taken at Twilight hence the name of the book. 

Catch Ruth's full chat with The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show by pressing the play button below.

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Twilight Together: Portraits of Ireland at Home by Ruth Medjber is out now.