Just as the COVID pandemic caused the New South Wales health minister to issue sweeping lockdown rules at the end of March 2020, photographer John Swainston’s family was moving their home to Bowral, 110km south of Sydney. One of the few valid reasons to travel was to move house – so in that first strange month John combined a number of road trips transporting the family possessions with a photo-documentary of the vacated, locked-down city of Sydney by night.

Later, even tougher restrictions made Sydney completely inaccessible for some months. But as work-related permits became available, John resumed recording a city completely alien to its planned purpose. He was also there to document the return of commuters in October 2021.

This historic record concludes with the triumphant reopening of the Sydney Opera House in July 2022.