Description
In this compelling photographic journal, an experienced photographer transforms personal restriction into artistic revelation. During the unprecedented COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, when the world stood still and cities emptied, the author embarked on daily dérives through the deserted streets of Exeter—urban wanderings that would have made Guy Debord and his Situationist colleagues proud.
What began as permitted daily exercise within an hour’s walk from home evolved into something far more profound: a unique documentation of a familiar city transformed. Through the lens of psychogeography—the practice of exploring urban environments to uncover their hidden emotional and psychological effects—readers witness Exeter as few have ever seen it: empty, hauntingly beautiful, and startlingly new despite its ancient Roman origins.
From St David’s through the city centre, investigating St James, exploring Newtown and St Leonard’s, and circling back along the river and quayside, this visual journey captures not just the physical landscape of a city in lockdown, but the psychological terrain of a world in crisis. The photographer’s eye, trained since those formative days as a 1960s art student armed with nothing but a simple Kodak Brownie, reveals the extraordinary within the familiar.
This collection serves as both artistic achievement and historical document—a reminder that even in our darkest moments, when global catastrophe claims millions of lives, the human spirit continues to seek beauty, meaning, and connection through the simple act of really seeing the world around us.
A must-read for photography enthusiasts, urban studies scholars, and anyone interested in how crisis reshapes our relationship with the places we call home.
Creator: Robin Mudge
Dimensions: 210mmx 210mm Square
Page Count: 168
Paper Type: 200 gsm Silk
Binding Style: Wiro
Covers: Soft
Number of Photos: 78
