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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

 

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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”.