Thierry Vanlee Photography

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, cordons sanitaires and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countries and territories around the world. These restrictions were established to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.^[1] By April 2020, about half of the world's population was under some form of lockdown, with more than 3.9 billion people in more than 90 countries or territories having been asked or ordered to stay at home by their governments.^[2] Although similar disease control measures have been used for hundreds of years, the scale seen in the 2020s is thought to be unprecedented (reference Wikipedia). 

During the Belgian lockdown I photographed people, in my homecity Ghent, from the outside of their house  behind their windows to reflect the barrier created by the lockdown measurements.  I asked them to hold something which was dear to them and/or helped them to manage the situation.