A few weeks into lockdown, VICE UK put a call out to some of our favourite photographers. We wanted submissions for photo essays that reflect the time we’re living in – but interesting, imaginative projects, not just “I’m stuck inside, here are some pictures of my cheese-plant”.

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Luckily, because the photographers we reached out to are all interesting and imaginative people, we got a ton of great ideas back, which we’ve whittled down to ten final projects. We’re running one every week for ten weeks, to be followed by an exhibition you can stage in your very own home (details on that to come).

The sixth project, “ZOOM OUT“, is by Max Siedentopf, who has kindly explained it for you below.

With the start of the lockdown, almost every person was all of a sudden forced to turn their flat into their office, and work from home. Whereas meetings used to be held in grey offices and conference rooms, these spaces were replaced by kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms, and meetings held via online conference calls. During the lockdown, the usage of video conference platforms such as Zoom increased from 10 million daily meeting participants back in December of 2019 to 300 million in April of 2020. “ZOOM OUT” tries to imagine what happens in the background of these conference calls.