The Curfew Tree

The first morning after a State of Disaster was called and a curfew imposed on Victoria on the 3 August 2020, I found it impossible to get out of bed and begin my day, despite having a dog that was pouncing all over me.

As I looked out the window of my room, I looked at the bare branches of the 100 plus, year old Elm Tree that grows across the road. It was looking strong and structural, its branches reaching outward and upward toward the sky. I lay and thought that the tree had seen quite a lot in its time; the very first curfews in Victoria for the first and second world wars. I thought of the many people and families that it had overseen, living in the house that I now was.

How could I be weakened by a curfew that was set to save Victorian lives. I would honour this beautiful tree and take a photo every morning when I woke, for a full year of its life cycle and record the seasonal changes. Not thinking that we would be in a second curfew in 2021.

The year of photographs will be made into a book, titled ‘The Curfew Tree,’ each page a photo of the tree, the time it was taken, covid data for each day and a few words in reflection of my own.

These three photos exhibited are representative.

Margot Sharman, 2021