Chefs in Lockdown by John Carey

2025 marks the five-year anniversary of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. A moment in history that changed the life and landscape for everyone across the globe.

Award-winning photographer John Carey is exhibiting a series of powerful, black and white portraits from his book, Chefs in Lockdown, When the Restaurant World Stood Still at Fortnum & Mason. Discover these real, raw and completely stripped back photographs from this unprecedented moment in time.

'Five years ago, on 20th March 2020, the UK Government, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, informed restaurants that they had to close their doors to the public. This was an unprecedented moment in time. 

'After an initial period of being locked down with my family in Kent, an idea started to form in my head, based on this notion that chefs are forever on the move, creating, thinking, planning. Restaurants are usually full of colour, laughter, LIFE! But now, the energy was different. Despite the resilience many chefs were showing, the restaurants were locked, some boarded up. The kitchens were empty, the chairs and tables stacked high, the glassware gathering dust and the plants wilting. The power of something that usually moves at such speed, grinding to a halt, seemed evocative of this time and helped me formulate my idea. 

‘I decided I wanted to photograph these chefs in these spaces. To tell a story as a metaphor for the lockdown experience within the restaurant industry. The isolation, the neglect, the vulnerability, the raw emotion, the social distancing.’ - John Carey 

'Chefs in Lockdown, When the Restaurant World Stood Still 

£50 per book £150 for a special edition copy - limited to 250 copies  

Limited-edition prints, signed and numbered by John Carey, are available to purchase.    

 10% of the profits from John’s book and limited-edition prints and will be donated to The Burnt Chef Project, a non-profit social enterprise who aim to of eradicate mental health stigma within hospitality. Find out more at THEBURNTCHEFPROJECT.COM     

John Carey

Born in South East London, award-winning food, drink and portrait photographer John Carey has worked on books with the likes of Gordon Ramsay, The Ritz, Tom Parker Bowles and Claridge’s amongst many others. His close working relationship with chefs and restaurants has given him a unique understanding and perspective of chefs, food and food photography. After studying photography at Ravensbourne Art College and the University of Northumbria, John started his career as a picture researcher on The Times Magazine in 1997. He quickly progressed as a photographer in his own right and was shooting covers for that very magazine within two years. On going freelance in 2001, John’s eye for detail and passion for photography, food and drink allowed him to broaden his client base to some of the most prestigious chefs, restaurants, hotels, book publishers and brands in the world.

'My photographic approach had to be different to what I ‘normally’ do. I wanted these portraits to be different. Most of my commercial work is in colour, but the colour had been drained from the restaurants, I usually ‘light’ portraits, but I didn’t want to add any layer of gloss/shine, the lights had literally been turned off… there was no straightening of tables, no ironing of tablecloths, no polishing of glasses, it had to be photographed as found.

‘I wanted the chefs to be still, very still. The world of restaurants had temporarily stopped, and I wanted that reflected in the chef’s stance. All 190 chefs I photographed showed great empathy for what I was trying to achieve. For this I am hugely grateful.’ - John Carey

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