Essential:
Portraits of front-line workers
Watch the introduction. (2 mins)
In Melbourne we had 267 days of lockdown over 2020 and 2021. While at the start of pandemic, we all seemed to rally around the efforts of the front-line ‘essential workers,’ as the days wore on, the news stories moved on.
This series is a tribute to everyone who kept going into work, while we stayed at home.
Watch the documentary.
Credits:
Directed and painted by Avraham Vofsi
Edited by Tatanja Ross
Additional Cinematography by Daniel von Czarnecki
Artist Statement
In Melbourne we had 267 days of lockdown over 2020 and 2021. During the first year of the Pandemic I moved my studio to my house, as we all did it, and tried to keep creative. That year I made almost no paintings - it was a weird time, you don't need me to tell you.
I was glued to the news. In the early days the stories were focused on the amazing work of the front-line medical staff. But as 2020 dragged on, the stories of front-line workers faded from view and the focus shifted to small businesses who would save us from recession, or whatever political maneuvering was happening that day. All the while, the situation hadn’t really changed; the front-line staff and all the other workers deemed essential were still working just as hard, but without the lip service paid to them.
Opening night in Collingwood. Photos by Tatanja Ross
As the big lockdown in 2020 ended I returned to my studio and the seed of this project popped into my head; I would reach out to people who had to work during the lockdowns and make some portraits with them. Perhaps it was change of surroundings, or the desperation to get painting again that helped form the idea, I’ll never know.
I reached out to dozens of people to find stories of how people’s work lives had been affected by the pandemic and the lockdown. I brought them into my studio (with covid safe practices), and we spent a few hours together. They shared their stories with me in an interview, and then we started to plan their portraits. Each of the portraits you see in this series is a collaboration between myself and the sitter. They would bring in their uniforms and together we would experiment with different positions to find one that felt right for them. After our brief time together I would complete their portraits from photographs I had taken.
Opening night in Collingwood. Photos by Tatanja Ross
I started the first painting in December 2020, and finished the final portrait in January 2021. Dedicating a whole year to a project makes you reflect on your lived experience and the experience of others. There are so many stories, and I feel I learnt something from each of the people I was lucky enough to spend time with. While I didn’t set out to make a big statement or particular message with this project, looking at it finished it seems pretty clear. It is perhaps summed up best by Shae, the high school teacher: “We all need each other, that’s the lesson of the pandemic.” Each of us have our own experiences of this time, but together the experience we all had is what will endure. I hope you can see yourself, or a loved one, in one of these Essential portraits.
