About
A giant photo mosaic was created by the People’s Picture and unveiled as part of the #massisolationFORMAT project at FORMAT21 International Photography Festival, installed at Quad, Derby. Inspired by the 1937 Mass Observation project, FORMAT invited people to use the hashtag #massisolationFORMAT to create a visual record of the Covid19 crisis on Instagram. This mass-participation project, set up at the beginning of the March 2020 lockdown, received over 40,000 photo submissions from 90+ countries, sharing people’s experiences living through a pandemic.
Artwork
The images came from a wide range of people – photographers, professionals, amateurs, members of the public – and came together as a large scale photo mosaic installed at Quad, Derby to celebrate our collective emergence into the ‘new normal’. Chosen by FORMAT, the photograph Lovers was shot by Argentian photographers Luisa Magdalena and Nahuel Alfonso and inspired by Renè Magritte’s painting Les Amants. A double self-portrait, created in response to the Covid19 pandemic, its painterly quality with its youthful optimism of young love.
Photographs
Photographers
Countries
Gigapixels
Gallery
This mass-participation project, set up at the beginning of the March 2020 lockdown, received over 40,000 photo submissions from 90+ countries, sharing people’s experiences living through a pandemic. The images came from a wide range of people – photographers, professionals, amateurs, members of the public. This mass-participation project, set up at the beginning of the March 2020 lockdown, received over 40,000 photo submissions from 90+ countries, sharing people’s experiences living through a pandemic.
The Lovers
The Lovers photo mosaic has been produced in four ambitious conceptions for FORMAT21: an online interactive 180 giga pixel zoomable image hosted by Micrio; an online multiplayer exhibition; a giant public space vinyl print installation produced by Prolific Graphics at QUAD in Derby and a physical exhibition featuring curated friezes at Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
Explore
The online interactive high resolution 180 giga pixel image is composed of a total of 180,574 photos. When the viewer zooms in they are able to see the individual photos from #massisolationFORMAT up close and in detail.
“[Lovers] was selected to be the focal point to unite the huge selection of images, encapsulating the feeling of hope that so many of us have clung to over the past year and gives us a glimpse into the intimacy, friendship, laughter and love that is awaiting us as we begin to exit the pandemic.”
Louise Fedotov Clements | FORMAT Director
Helen Marshall | Artistic Director of the People’s Picture
