Kathie rises to the doorstep challenge
Photographer on maternity leave finds her skills in demand capturing life in Dales village during crisis
ARTS: When mother-of-four and photographer Kathie Tiffany found herself at home in lockdown, she wanted to stay creative.
And so she embarked on what has turned out to be a fascinating project to capture doorstep portraits of villagers in one of the most extraordinary moments in living memory.
The more people saw the pictures, the more they got into contact.
Photographer Kathie Tiffany.
WHEN MOTHER-OF-FOUR and photographer Kathie Tiffany found herself at home in lockdown, she wanted to stay creative.
And so she embarked on what has turned out to be a fascinating project to capture doorstep portraits of villagers during one of the most extraordinary moments in living memory.
Ms Tiffany, who lives in the village of Embsay, near Skipton, North Yorkshire, started out by posting a picture she took of her family on her doorstep on social media.
It was this simple act that started the ball rolling.
“We have so many friends who are nurses, doctors and social workers and they are all working to maxed out hours and trying to home school,” she said.
“I was already off work on maternity leave after having my baby at the beginning of December, so doing this project kept me creative.
“Someone had just given birth to a baby and wasn’t able to have a new baby shoot, so she said could I come and do one on the doorstep. The more people saw the pictures, the more they got into contact.
“I thought I could make money for charity and get me out of the chaos of the house for a bit – I have four kids under seven.
“I’d had lots of jobs cancelled because of Covid and I didn’t really want to stop doing photography. I wanted to offer something to the village, to bring us together as a community and put it into one gallery.
“At the same time, I thought it was a good excuse to raise money for Manorlands Hospice and Skipton Food Bank, which is down the road.”
One of the first pictures was of Heather Best, who had been “pacing the village with her bump”. She went into labour at Airedale Hospital, where she gave birth to her second son Ralph.
She and husband Darren wanted a newborn photo shoot, but taking a picture on the doorstep turned out to be the safest option.
Another favourites is that of Margaret Corr. “She didn’t know I was coming,” said Ms Tiffany.
“She was on Skype talking to her grandchildren, who were talking to me and saying, ‘Are you going to put us on television?’
“Her daughter messaged me later to say she loved the image – it was really poignant, so far but so near.
“Then there was retired couple Peter and Marcia Watson, who live round the corner. They normally spend a lot of time visiting their twin children and grandchildren, who live in New York and Brussels.
“That all stopped so I took the opportunity to take their photos so they can send them to America and Brussels where the twins live.
“It was such a lovely idea to send it to their family and say, ‘We’re here, we’re OK.’”
Under the stricter lockdown rules, it took some planning to capture everybody whose portraits she wanted to take in her once-a-day loop round the village.
Since the rules were relaxed, things have got easier and she has now done more than 100 portraits.
Printer Mathew Mason, from local firm John Mason, has offered to print the images up as picture postcards, which Ms Tiffany and her family will soon be popping through people’s letterboxes. Eventually she hopes to raise funding to mount an exhibition at the Village Institute.
Some people had worried that their front doors were “not good enough” for the pictures.
But Ms Tiffany said: “It was always about the characters behind the front doors and the family unit and how important that became during lockdown.
“One of the messages I’ve had was from someone who said it brought her to tears. She was at home, her husband working all the time, and her kids under her feet, and she was trying to do the schooling. She’d forgotten there was a whole village doing that.
“People have felt emotional looking at the full gallery, and it’s really captured a slice of history for us all.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to do.”