But it’s far more unusual than it was a year and a month earlier; I had to wait with my camera for quite a while before I could get any photos at all with mask wearers. Last year it had been a matter of minutes before I found my subjects.

Again, I’ve included a few shots from my 2021 look at shoppers in Central Milton Keynes. You can see more photos from then at the link below, and to see more of The Distance Project, please click the link in the Categories list, in the sidebar.

The Distance Project 33
Freedom! (29th July 2021)

I wrote:

“It was Freedom Day, Monday the 19th. I went to Central Milton Keynes to see what was happening; would everybody be maskless?

No, they wouldn’t. A good third, maybe more of everyone I saw wore a mask. I could see no pattern in who wore a mask and who didn’t, except that older people were perhaps a bit more likely to.”

This year, I had to wait quite a while before somebody with a mask walked by. Unlike the previous photo,this year I saw just one person at a time, nearly always on their own, or sometimes a couple wearing masks.

Lots of masks, but little social distancing. (July 2021)

A woman sort of wears a mask. (2022)

This older couple (centre) still wear masks, even although they are just in the shopping centre aisles. (2022)

While this woman wears a mask, she has just been sitting next to the (still) seated stranger; not at one metre, never mind two. (2022)

The woman in the previous photo moved on after a few minutes sat down next to a stranger. As with the previous shot she is the only person in sight who wears a mask. (2022)

Not far from the shopping centre, almost new signs ask us to keep social distancing. Recently erected signs like this are not uncommon. (2022)