Scenes from a period of balcony life

Lockdown has created some unusual, endearing, evocative, sad, hopeful images… all captured through our windows.

Ever since the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a pandemic and the world was forced to take some time out to slow the spread, we have been waking to tragic news every day, but also to events as touching and images as unusual as the times we're living through. Many of them are true signs of nature's resilience and its ability to carry on, and even improve when humanity stops interfering.

Nature takes its course

The fact that most people are quarantined at home has led many rather absent-minded animals to roam city streets. There have been sightings of deer, wild boar, peacocks, ducks and many more.

Blackbird nests have also been spotted in the fuselage of aircraft halted on runways due to air travel suspensions. At a zoo in Hong Kong, a couple of giant pandas, an endangered species, have mated for the first time in over a decade, taking this opportunity afforded to them by a lack of tourists to enjoy a period of intimacy. We'll have to wait a few months to see if it leads to a pregnancy.

#PHEdesdemibalcón (PHEFromMyBalcony) Images

The fact is that 2020 will remain etched in our memories as the year in which the unexpected pandemic swept the planet, but also as the period in which we watched life pass us by through our windows. Many of these unexpected images unfolded right in front of balconies at home: acts of generosity between neighbours, clean skies with no trace of pollution thanks to reduced traffic and industrial activity, daily rounds of applause, flocks of birds without a care in the world, vegetation growing where only concrete once lay…

The #PHEdesdemibalcón initiative, (PHEFromMyBalcony) led by PhotoEspaña (PHE) and ACCIONA, is a hashtag that many have used to upload photographs featuring scenes of their lockdown that provide an extraordinary record of snapshots into lives during this time. Here is a sample, but you can view them all in our virtual gallery.

fotos desde balcon confinamiento coronavirus