'Vera 93' print by Robert Speker with Sydmar Lodge Care Home

Print ‘Vera 93’ reconstruction album cover by Robert Speker, 2020. Produced with Sydmar Lodge Care Home residents and staff during the first Covid-19 Lockdown in the UK. Copying an album cover by Adele, Vera is shown head and shoulders in black and white, leaning her head on her hand. Lettering in white and yellow to bottom right. Printed at the size of a standard LP record sleeve.

This set of 12 Care Home Album Covers attracted significant media attention in July 2020 after being tweeted by photographer Robert Speker. Working as Activities Coordinator at Sydmar Lodge Care Home, North London, Speker collaborated with residents and staff to recreate a series of famous album covers. In each case the figures in the album photographs are replaced by a care home individual, and the artist’s name or album title are replaced with the new sitter’s name or a reference to the care home.

Vera’s was the fifth photo in the series, and recreated Adele's second studio album released. Speker has explained, “Vera was the ideal resident to use for this album cover. She absolutely loves music and singing, and when I play a few chords on the piano Vera can often start singing the song. Vera was paired with the album due to her love of music and it was also helpful that she has a similar hair type to Adele. The album allowed me to insert Vera's name and age, in keeping with Adele's album, so named after her age at the time of release. Vera held the pose perfectly and it really shows a life lived.”

These first 12 album covers produced by Speker and care home contributors were developed into a charity calendar for the Alzheimer’s Society for 2021. Together they help to capture the particular experience of those living and working in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, which attracted wide media attention and public criticism for seeming to be ‘abandoned’ and for the extreme isolation imposed on residents, unable to see loved ones for many months. Equally, however, Speker’s joyful work demonstrates the creativity that flowered across society during the first lockdown, and the work by many artists to offer support – whether financial or emotional – to NHS staff, the wider public, and each other.