Social distancing; a term that at the start of this year, not many would’ve heard of, let alone used when talking about our daily existence. It’s also come to be a slight misnomer as arguably, with the proliferation of technology, we are more social than ever, though we may still be apart. Technology affords us all the ability to be alone together.
 
Maintaining our physical distance from one another however, two metres at all times, has become an exercise in agility. From leaving the house to do your weekly shop, to getting your allocated hour of daily exercise, maintaining physical distance is vital to staying safe. Yet it’s a distance across which you can still talk, still laugh and still, most importantly, feel connected, as a new project has set out to capture.
 
The Two Metres Project is an exercise in storytelling under lockdown and a tale of creativity amidst constraint. A pair of creatives photographed and interviewed people they saw while out and about during lockdown. The subjects are street cast, photographed from two metres away after which their stories are audio recorded.
 
The project is a collaboration between Creative Director Cathy Hutton and award-winning portrait photographer Tom Oldham. As Hutton explained: “there’s no brand behind it, no click-bait headline.” Just pure, unadulterated human storytelling at its simplest and best.

There’s Jill, clad from head to toe in red, riding her bike through the park; Eiseins and Sue talking about the birth of their new grandson a few weeks before lockdown; and Daphne, describing the exploration she’s doing around the streets she lives on saying, “got lost a few times, mind you I’ve got all the time in the world to find my way back.”
 
Storytelling is the way we understand the world around us; it allows us to develop empathy for people whose lives look dramatically or perhaps only slightly different to ours. Instagram has become a powerful mechanism through which this can be done, allowing for galleries of images to be compiled, and powerful stories told alongside them.

While the Two Metres Project is being housed on Instagram, a few of the images have appeared on OOH sites in a supporting exhibition created by Craft Media London. Many of the sites are local to the people in the photos, bringing some much needed art to public spaces for those who are still out working to glimpse as they keep the country running. For even as we exist physically separated, there is a comfort in the lives of others, of feeling close to others, something this project brings to life so beautifully.
 
As photographer Tom Oldham explained, “We might be isolated and alone, but we’re finding our own ways through.”
 
Visit Tom Oldham’s Instagram to follow the ongoing project.