No picture-perfect Christmas - COVID-19 leaves park photographers out of the frame

Lionel Grant has financed the education of his eight children and bought his house from taking photographs at the St William Grant Park, but since its closure in March, he said some days he doesn’t earn enough to even purchase a meal.

Grant, who has been a photographer for the last 40 years, still turns up for work six days a week hoping that someone will need his services, but the 78-year-old is left disappointed most days.

Armed with two cameras, the senior citizen sat on a kerb at the entrance to the downtown Kingston park on Saturday looking on glumly as Parade hummed with economic activity, with hawkers and merchants jostling to pry open the pocketbooks of shoppers.

The picture ahead on King Street was in stark contrast to the near-funereal atmosphere of the park, where only a few workers were seen undertaking cleaning-up activities.

“From we out at the gate here, we are not working. Everybody used to come in the park, they used to see us in there and probably they want something and they ask us to do it, and we raise money from that, but we are not doing any business now,” he said.

The St William Grant Park, like other public parks islandwide, was ordered closed in March as part of a suite of restrictions on gatherings in public spaces. The closure has impacted photographers, who, in previous years, would have crowded its entrance to woo passers-by.

MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS

Christmas, especially, was a profitable time for the photographers, as the decorations set the perfect backdrop for family portraits and snapshots of young lovers. Grant has fond memories of staying out until midnight capturing revelry and family frolics at the historic location.

“It’s the worse Christmas for the period of years that I have been taking pictures,” he lamented.

There were about 10 photographers who made a living at the park prior to COVID-19, but Grant is the only one who still shows up daily.

“Everybody find some little other place and gone, and me say well, because I am an old man, let me just stay, and if anybody come, I would just take them,” Grant told The Gleaner. “Sometime, to be honest, you get a little money, but sometime, to be honest, you don’t get none.”

Wayne Russell has been taking photos at the park for the last 13 years, but since its closure, he has been nomadic, roaming the city daily for customers. He only stops by the St William Grant Park on Saturdays.

OVERRUN BY DIGITAL

But even before COVID-19, the sun had begun to set on park photographers with the advent of smartphones – even if some of those shots are blurry and out of focus. Many have become hapless hitch-hikers, bellowing for a ride on a fast-paced digital highway.

Such photogs have failed to pivot amid the economic fallout triggered by containment measures, left behind because they have not retooled or reimagined revenue streams.

However, even as the death knell tolled, Christmas had still remained a very profitable time.

”Down to last Christmas gone, the park was nice. Only problem, it was closed early. But otherwise, back in the days when it used to open in normal time, the kids them come out, and people, and the place crowded and full up, and everybody lively and take them picture,” he told The Gleaner.

Manager for the park, Delores Williams, said it is likely that St William Grant will reopen in the New Year, but she is not sure exactly when. She was seen supervising a team as they prepared the facility for the annual tree-lighting ceremony that traditionally takes place the week before Christmas.

Williams, who was a janitor and a bathroom attendant before being promoted to manager, was sympathetic of the photographers, but was unsure whether their fate would change in the near future.

“This was their livelihood at Christmas, but because of the corona, we cannot allow it,” she said.

At the Mandela Park in Half-Way Tree, Alan Currie was the lone photographer. He walks to the park daily with his camera and stations himself at the closed gate.

“Most of the days I come here, I don’t really hustle nothing, only just tru mi love the work,” he said.

BILLS PILING UP

Fortunately, his children are now adults, but his personal bills are piling up.

“A last week mi see the landlord and him a show mi how much month mi owe him, and mi frighten. Mi can’t believe a so long mi really owe him for, because from COVID in March, they lock the park,” he lamented.

Currie has been a photographer since 1989, but has been working exclusively at Mandela Park since about 1991.

“Right now, you would have the Christmas tree inside there and it would be well decorated and you would have people a come, family, to and fro, and we would be hustling,” he said.

But that has not been the case, as most days he goes home empty-handed.

“From morning I am here, from about 8 o’clock, and is one somebody pass and I hustle a one little $500. All yesterday, big Friday, nothing, not even a dollar; and many days that we can count so far, not even a cent,” Currie told The Gleaner Saturday afternoon.

Photographer Lloyd Burk, who offers his service at the privately operated Emancipation Park, is not doing any better.

Burk, who was spotted chilling on a bench at the park on Saturday, said he has cut back on his workdays because oftentimes he does not get any clients during the week.

Given the slow pace of business, he is peeved that he still has to pay the required $2,350 to peddle his services at the facility. He said he was denied the use of the venue when he failed to pay in September, although he has been doing business at the park since it was opened in 2002.

Most of the other photographers have stopped coming. At one point, he said there were 19 of them registered, but he was the only one seen on Saturday. He would like the fee to be reduced, given the slow pace of business.

“All mi a tell them that nothing not really going on, them a say mi must pay,” Burk said.

nadine.wilson@gleanerjm.com