Hidden in plain sight: the RCA’s places and people during a global pandemic
Jorge Flores Cedeno is a Premises Assistant in the Estates & Campus Operations (E&CO) team at the RCA. He is currently based at the Battersea campus, where he is well known to students and staff alike, whether as Jorge, George or by his nickname of Aquaman.
During the global Covid-19 pandemic, Jorge has developed his practice in architectural and portrait photography with the encouragement of his managers and colleagues in E&CO and with the professional technical support and guidance of the Technical Services staff in the Photography facilities at Battersea.
Jorge is keen to develop his photography practice further, and is using this entry into HIDDEN 2021 to pull together his very first online portfolio of work to show to the RCA community.
Jorge has used the largely empty buildings of the RCA’s Battersea and Kensington campuses to capture images of the RCA without the usual throng of busy art students and the backdrop of art and design being created. In doing so he has created his own collection of images of the RCA as it is not often seen – empty, and with nobody to see them.
During the Covid lockdowns imposed by the UK government in 2020/21, the RCA’s campuses in Battersea and Kensington were closed to all but essential E&CO and ILTS staff. As a member of E&CO, Jorge was able to capture detailed images of elements of the RCA’s buildings during lockdown.
As the College’s campuses began to reopen from September 2020, and staff and students gradually came back to campus, Jorge also captured images of some of the ‘unsung heroes’ of the RCA at this time – the cleaning, catering and security staff who helped keep the campuses open for students, and who helped staff and students stay safe during Covid times.
