Cork, Ireland, Photography, Photos, Street, Urban

Diego in Town

Masks down to eat ice cream.

I barely used my camera in April. I took one photo with it and it was a test shot of my office window. My first time taking the camera out was May 9th when we had to go into town to do some shopping.

Social distancing while waiting in line for coffee.

Not many people were wearing masks then, but social distancing was happening. The city was still mostly shut down and there weren’t that many people about.

Advertising for a movie that came out 2 months before.

It was a sign of the times that an advertisement for a movie released in mid-March was still showing on a bus at the start of May. The country had ground to a halt.

You can’t sit here. Public transport was pretty empty during lockdown.

Masks become mandatory today in shops and public transport. The next phase of unlocking the economy has been put on hold. Pubs were supposed to open on August 10th but that won’t be happening.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	35mm
ISO	500
Shutter speed	1/250s

Cork, Ireland, People, Photography, Photos, Street, Urban

Cork in Covid-19 Lockdown

Flowers, candles and tributes to Daphne Caruana Galizia left at the foot of the Great Siege Monument, opposite the Law Courts in Valletta.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated on October 16th, 2017 when a bomb exploded in her car close to her home. She was an investigative journalist in Malta who, “revealed controversially sensitive information and allegations relating to a number of Maltese politicians and the Panama Papers scandal.” Her investigative work was continued in the Daphne Project.

Her memorial at the foot of the Great Siege Monument was being removed every night and supporters replaced it in the morning but recently that has changed and, as of January this year, it had remained intact for a month. Later, in March a court ruled that the removal of the monument violated protesters’ right to freedom of expression.

Unsettling nightly routine in #Malta. City cleaners remove all flowers, photos & candles in front of the court in Valletta dedicated to murdered journalist #DaphneCaruanaGalizia. The worker explains: „instructions from above“. His authority leads to Justice Minister @OwenBonnici. pic.twitter.com/zOYBuFKmTP

— Thomas Datt (@datt_thomas) December 12, 2019

The Council of Europe report (mirror) [PDF] quoted in the picture reads:

Even after her death, there remains an appearance of government hostility towards Ms Caruana Galizia. People outraged by her assassination, who were determined to keep her memory alive and campaign for the masterminds to be brought to justice, began placing flowers, candles and written messages as an informal memorial at the symbolic site of the ‘Great Siege Monument’ opposite the court of justice. Dr Bonnici, in his capacity as minister for culture, ordered that the memorial be removed every night, and closed the monument for three months for restoration work (compare that to the 11 days it took to restore the Arc de Triomphe in Paris after it was extensively vandalised during ‘gilets jaunes’ demonstrations). One is left with the impression that the government would prefer that Ms Caruana Galizia be erased from the public memory.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	25mm
ISO	5000
Shutter speed	1/500s

Photography, Photos, Street

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Memorial

Black and White, Cork, Ireland, People, Photography, Photos, Street, Urban

The ATM has Legs

Black and White, Cork, Ireland, People, Photography, Photos, Street, Urban

The Rebel Burger Co

Porto, Portugal, November 2019. Long before SARS-CoV-2 hit Europe. Street photography feels like a forbidden art now that we are all at home and we’re not allowed on the streets in any numbers.

* You obviously should not walk around with a locker like this. STAY AT HOME!