As 2020 comes to a close, a year to forget for the majority, it also gives us time to reflect on a year of lockdown, deserted streets, rules and regulations, face masks... the list goes on. Madrid, initially one of Spain's worst hit areas, has been the centre of the coronavirus crisis in Spain and is now giving its residents a chance to take a look back at what life was like in Madrid in 2020 in a new exhibition in the capital. The 40 best photos of lockdown in Madrid are now on display in Madrid's Museo de Historia (History Museum) and is called "Madrid 2020: una ciudad insólita".
Madrid 2020: an unusual city. Unusual is just one of many words that could be used to decribe what seemed to be a never-ending lockdown in Spain's capital. While news spread that COVID-19 cases in the city weren't improving, and the city resembled a ghost town in the strictest days of the city's confinement, people across Spain tried to make the most of a bad situation. Every evening at 8pm on the dot, Madrid's residents took to their windows and balconies to applaud and show their appreciation for those working tirelessly in Spain's hospitals and healthcare system. These are just some of the many iconic images that people in Madrid, and many other areas, have experienced in 2020.
While these are moments that we may all rather forget, they are moments that will stay with us for many years to come. And this is the essence of Madrid's newest photo exhibition that has been put together by the Time Out magazine in Spain. After a period of 6 months when more than 325 photographs were submitted, the best 40 have been chosen and can now be seen by the public. All of the photos in this new exhibition are "portraits of a city that document the difficult and historical moments that Madrid experienced during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic", when the streets were deserted and residents were confined to their houses, getting some fresh air and a sense of community only by leaning out of their balconies and windows. Time Out has stated that the photographs that have been chosen for the exhibition in Madrid's History Museum "are an acknowledgement of the effort and resilience experienced during those first months" of lockdown.
The judging panel from Time Out have also highlighted the 3 best of photos from the exhibition. The winning photograph belongs to Ulises Fernández and has the title "Resignación y esperanza" (Resignation and hope), which depicts the loneliness of the elderly, an image which sadly goes hand in hand with this period of lockdown across the world. In second place is a photo by José Luis Amo which is called "Mi vecina a las ocho de la tarde" (My neighbour at 8pm), a photo which shows a close-up of a woman's hands applauding, and finally, a photo that represents the joy of the first outings in the street when the lockdown rules in Madrid were relaxed. This photo is called "Desconfinamiento" (Lockdown easing) and features a little girl jumping up and down in the street and enjoying the freedom that she had missed greatly during lockdown.
These 3 emotive images, as well as the other 37 images that feature in the exhibition, can be seen at the Madrid History Museum in Calle Fuencarral 78, and will be on display until 27th June 2021.