#CareHomeAlbumCovers 2021 calendar, featuring twelve photographs of Sydmar Lodge Care Home residents and staff in the style of classic album covers taken by Robert Speker during the first Covid-19 Lockdown in the UK in 2020, sold by the Alzheimer’s Society as their official 2021 calendar

In July 2020, the Care Home Album Covers attracted significant media attention after being tweeted by photographer Robert Speker. Those photographs continued to capture the public attention and 12 of them were included in the Alzheimer’s Society’s 2021 calendar. 100% of the profits from the calendar went the Alzheimer’s Society.

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.

The photographs in this calendar 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.