Lockdown Portraits Session Three

Balancing Act • Krissy

April 8, 2020

Amidst the upheaval of the 2020 Corona Lockdown, I embarked on a personal mini project that became a testament to resilience: Lockdown Portraits. These are not just photos; they are glimpses into the lives of real people—individuals navigating the challenges and triumphs that isolation brings.

Each portrait tells a story, not of models, but of everyday heroes facing the ordeals of lockdown with courage and grace. To add depth to the visual narrative, I posed two questions to each participant, unearthing personal insights that accompany their portraits.

Third-up was Kristel Molly: Entrepreneur, Mom, Thinker, Dancer, Model, and Sparkling Banana Girl.

portrait of niki, 2020

Lockdown has pushed me to take things a bit slower, to re-prioritize my life and choices.

Can you describe to what extent the lockdown has affected your life and how? both on a personal and professional level?

Professionally, I need to balance my working time more than ever with taking care of my 5 year old kid, which is quite a challenge. I’m co-parent and have my kid 50% of the time. After 3 weeks of lockdown, I’ve noticed that I can’t work and take care simultaneously and maintain my sanity, which requires flexibility from my employer in terms of expectations and from myself. Luckily, my job already allowed me to work remotely, so in that sense little has changed.

In a personal sense, it has affected my craving to socialize with other people in the real, outside world. Thank God for making phone calls and FaceTime, but it’s not the same. Being forced to stay inside and limiting contact, can draw me inward from time to time, which is not always good. I’m a thinker and my thoughts can cause my braincells to work overtime. Luckily, most of my thoughts are positive and lockdown has pushed me to take things a bit slower, to re-prioritize my life and choices and to work on some personal projects

If anything, what do you think will you take away from all this.any lessons learned?

Always lessons learned! Lockdown has sparked my creativity in the broadest sense, which allows me to do things alternatively or completely different. I love that! Also, I’ve become more conscious of my spending, health, body and life in general. I realize that I love spending time with my kid in different ways. For sure, I can’t wait for the school and day-care to open again, don’t get me wrong; I’m not the stay-at-home-mom kinda type. But I’m sort of happy that I have this time to qualitatively spend with her.

This whole situation is a mental waiting game and I’m glad to say that my outlook is quite positive (thank God for music too, I couldn’t live without that). It takes a lot to push me of my positivity pedestal. And although I also have my down days, I’ll be damned to get beaten by Corona 😊 (🎧 on Spotify: “Kith” – Hilary Woods)