As a part of my job responsibilities as an Analyst, I have been working on a few research white papers on “Risks and Impact of Coronavirus Globally in coming times”. I started working on this self-portrait project during unwanted and unexpected isolation, brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic which started impacting China especially since January 2020. The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 as global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Depending upon the several reports by consulting firms available said that COVID-19 will have a significant impact globally and there may be a chance of a recession in countries of South Asia, South America and some smaller European nations especially after post BREXIT laws/regulations. Other than these issues the citizens of the world will face challenges especially related to mental health because of the chances of getting isolated if affected by a coronavirus in any way. Other issues may be related to cyber breaches, shortage of essentials products, price hike, inflation, etc. With all those findings keeping in mind, I tried to give it a visual perceptive thereby mixing my full-time job learning/findings along with my personal conflicts within myself during COVID-19 nationwide lockdown. The other two members of the family lost their jobs and assignments instantly which led to the enormous amount of responsibility on my shoulders. Through this self-portrait the project, I want to highlight the issues that impacted me deeply in lockdown period and a way to wrestle with my own Anxiety and others such as Mental stress, Financial Stress, Insomnia, Anger, Addiction to Phone, Loneliness to name few.
Jai Thakur is an Indian documentary photographer from New Delhi. As an advertising postgraduate, he started his career as a copywriter in 2009 and since then worked with various agencies, consultancy firms and MNCs. In 2013, he attended a weekend photography workshop and post that started practising on his own. The majority of his works revolve around the socio-economic environment of the society. Other than the number of group exhibitions, he is a recipient of various national and international awards including Water Hero Award by Govt. of India (Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR), National Geographic’s MyIncredibleStory and Sahapedia Frames Grant. His work has been published in multiple books and platforms like Dodho Magazine, National Geographic, HIPA.ae Annual Book, Indian Photo Arts Magazine, 121Clicks, Street Photography India Book, Photographers Forum’s Book, Edge of Humanity, Exposure Magazine and many more. He appeared in the MX Player web series “Express Yourself” on River Conservation. As a member of the curation team, Jai has organised three editions of City Experience Festivals (Agra, Lucknow & Banaras). As a day job, he is working as a Business Research Analyst and practising photography simultaneously.