Nursing home residents recreate classic album covers, from Adele to David Bowie
A nursing home has demonstrated its creativity in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic by photographing residents recreating classic album covers.
Sydmar Lodge is a residential home located in Edgware, North London, which states on its website that it offers ”a full range of activities inside and outside of the care home”.
The nursing home recently invited several of its residents to imitate musicians including Adele, David Bowie and Taylor Swift for a photography series.
Photographed by Sydmar Lodge activities co-ordinator Robert Speker, residents posed as Adele on the cover of her acclaimed album 21, as Bowie on the cover of his sixth studio album Aladdin Sane and as Swift on the cover of 1989.
Julia Davey, manager of the nursing home, told The Independent that Mr Speker is “well-known locally” for organising activities that are “outside of the box”.
Ms Davey explained that Mr Speker chose residents who bore particular similarity to the musicians when devising the project.
The photograph he took of a resident called Sheila recreating Rag ‘n’ Bone Man‘s album Human was especially “poignant”, Ms Davey said, as the model is a big fan of the singer.
Prior to lockdown, Mr Speker arranged for Sheila to meet the musician, who autographed her album, as shown in the side-by-side image below.
Mr Speker shared the images from the album cover photography series on Twitter and Facebook, garnering thousands of praiseworthy comments.
On Twitter, it has received more than 100,000 likes and more than 34,000 retweets.
“These are so moving. Reminds me of my 97-year-old grandmother telling me that on the inside she was still 18. Beautiful,” one person tweeted.
“Man, every picture is so hilarious, technically breathtaking, and so moving, all at the same time! Really awesome,” another added.
Following the mass circulation of the images, Mr Speker has launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe in aid of the care home with a target of £1,000.
The Sydmar Lodge activities co-ordinator stated in the description that while his classic album covers photography project has “raised awareness globally” of the nursing home, it hasn’t raised funds, which was his “original intentions”.
“Elderly people will remain in lockdown for a long time, and I want to make their time as happy and fully of enjoyment and interest as possible,” he said.
