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What happens to the rooms in which we live in lockdown?
When schools, kindergartens and shops are temporarily closed?
When travel is impossible - and only home remains?
This family from Montreal, Canada, came up with a pretty creative answer to these questions: they transformed their apartment into the world whenever the time gave - and went on vacation even though they stayed at home.
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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Jean-Manuel Nadeau and Leila Afriat, both 36, wanted to show their two children: It's not all bad and difficult when we make life a little more colorful.
They immerse their rooms in colors, imagining themselves in distant places.
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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From March to September schools and kindergartens in Montreal were closed again and again, says Jean-Manuel Nadeau, the city is currently in lockdown again.
"Our home becomes our office, our school, the community café we used to go to, becomes a restaurant, yoga studio, cinema," he says.
Because the rooms always remain the same, they were given a new coat of paint on some days.
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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The small photo project is also an attempt to do something different than looking at life outside of one's own home on a screen, says Jean-Manuel Nadeau, who worked as a travel photographer for a long time.
His wife Leila works as an anthropologist in a museum - which is currently closed.
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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"The children loved this drama," says Kean-Manuel Nadeau.
For the family project, they kept searching the apartment for certain objects and certain colors - that sometimes took a whole day, says Nadeau.
Occupational therapy, then, in green, yellow, pink.
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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"It's a gift to have a little more time as a family," says Nadeau.
“In the past few months we have learned to find a new rhythm, to listen to each other better.
We have become slower, maybe more sensitive. "
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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On some days, the family was inspired by the colors of the rainbow - many families put it in their windows during the pandemic.
An "Everything will be fine" sign, says Jean-Manuel Nadeau: "A shining hope."
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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Nevertheless, many in the family did not go well this year: Nadeau tells of hopelessness, loneliness and job loss among friends and acquaintances.
"Our colors should also show the children that there is a spectrum of emotions that people are experiencing at this time."
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
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By the way, Milan is seven years old, Kahina is five.
There is also a cat in the family.
The two parents, says Jean-Manuel Nadeau, met 30 years ago when they were both children themselves.
"I hope that we won't just return to normal after Corona," he says, "but that we have learned from the opportunities that this time offered us how we can live better together."
Photo: Jean-Manuel Nadeau / jeanmanuelnadeau.com
