Smoking in isolation
Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 14:54 
Are you a smoker in lockdown, unable to leave your home other than for essential journeys?
If so you may be interested in a project being launched this week by photographer Dan Donovan.
Dan has worked with Forest since 2007. In that time he has attended most of our events in a personal or professional capacity and has taken thousands of photos.
A graphic designer, he also designs much of our campaign literature and many of our promotional tools. The current Forest logo is his work too.
Thirteen years ago, before the introduction of the smoking ban in England, Dan undertook a photographic project that was intended, he says, to be an “honest representation of smoking culture in Britain pre-July 2007”.
‘90 Smokers’ featured portraits of adults smoking in a multiple locations. It’s a great body of work.
Poignantly, many of the subjects would be committing a criminal offence if they were to light up in the same places today.
Prompted by the coronavirus lockdown, Dan is now working on a similar creative project, to be called ‘At Home: Smoking in Isolation'. He writes:
I can't take the pictures myself so I will be asking smokers to send in photos of themselves smoking at home or in their gardens during this lockdown period.
The smoking community still exists despite continued cultural demonisation and this new project will simply be a community window for those who enjoy and take pleasure in smoking.
Dan doesn’t expect professional quality portraits. The aim is simply to create a snapshot of smokers’ behaviour during the coronavirus lockdown so a photo taken on a mobile phone would be fine as long as the resolution is as high as possible.
The project, says Dan, isn’t about making a statement, it’s “more about embracing a community that is already familiar with social isolation.”
If you are interested in contributing to the project - photos will be posted on a dedicated website - please contact Dan via email at this address, dan@smokingathome.com.
To view the 2007 ‘90 Smokers’ project, click here.
Reader Comments