Your web browser is out of date. Update your browser for more security, speed and the best experience on this site.
Find out more
Untitled (13 Of 56)DSF 4575
CREDIT: Jules Hunter

The Human Touch: Ethics of working and photographing in ICU

Contemporary Home | Events | News

This is the twenty third blog in a series on COVID-19 and lockdown, edited by contemporaryweb@rps.org and contemporarydeputy@rps.org

 

Untitled (143 Of 213)DSF 4117
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Back Cover (33 Of 61)DSF 4369
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
COMP Covid 2020 3
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Covid 2020 120
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Covid 2020 127
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Covid 2020 162
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Covid 2020 295
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Death Of A Colleague Covid 2020 251
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Fit Testing Covid 2020 10
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Loss Of Colleagues (75 Of 150)DSF 4262 2
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Melissa Comp(149 Of 213)DSF 4123
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
PPE Covid 2020 98
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Rachel (29 Of 56)DSF 4593
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Untitled (20 Of 61)DSF 4356
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Untitled (44 Of 56)DSF 4613
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Untitled (61 Of 61)DSF 4398
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Untitled (141 Of 150)DSF 4329
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Untitled (113 Of 213)DSF 4084
CREDIT: Jules Hunter
Untitled (125 Of 150)DSF 4312
CREDIT: Jules Hunter

In order to care for the patients diagnosed with COVID-19 within ICU (intensive care unit) each member of staff involved had to be ‘fit’ tested for appropriate masks and outfits following UK’s Government and Nursing Council guidelines.

I was one of the first to attend and pass the safety measures to work in ICU from the start of the pandemic at Bassetlaw Hospital.  My colleagues and I attended meetings, briefs, updates and intense rapid training ensuring we were equipped with as much knowledge as possible.

As a professional photographer I watched the days evolve with wide-awake eyes noting each detail of how the team came together to save lives.  I knew I had to catalogue this historical narrative.

I questioned myself “Where does this leave me ethically as a health practitioner and photographer, combining both roles, balancing values and priorities?”

Reflecting on where I once took inspiration during my studies in photography, I sought permission to create a photo journal in homage to the patients and my colleagues. I was aware of colleagues who had contracted COVID-19 during work and that one had died.

The American documentary photographer Dorothea Lange, best known for capturing the spirit of the poor and forgotten during the Depression-era said “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”

As a photographer I have always tended to overthink, question and reflect on each personal project. “What would these photos imply. would I want to have my photograph taken during this time if I were on the other side of the camera in my uniform?” I reflected on the writings of Susan Sontag author of ‘On Photography’ said .“The camera may “intrude, trespass, distort, [and] exploit.”

Similarly Roland Barthes, the French essayist and social and literary critic whose writings on semiotics remain influential for Photography, said in his book ‘Camera Lucida’ “a specific photograph reaches me; it animates me, and I animate it. So that is how I must name the attraction which makes it exist: an animation.”

The ethics of documenting this extremely emotive historical period of the COVID-19 pandemic were of the utmost importance. My images were taken with full permission of the director of Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust where I work for as well as from my colleagues.

 

Editor’s Note: Jules Hunter is a qualified Operating Department Practitioner and trained mental health nurse. She has a 1st class Honours degree in fine art photography from Derby University and is a professional photographer. She recently won two Bronzes in the Documentary category of the Rise International Photography Award.

She continues with personal contemporary photography project “Tabula Rasa”.