Photos or it isn't real

[Warren Toda]

The CBC today ran a news story titled "A look inside an Alberta ICU ...".  What's the big deal about this news article?

Photos.

The pictures were shot by photographer (and NPAC member) Leah Hennel.

Why, oh why, hasn't every major hospital been doing this? Get a photographer to show the public exactly what's going  on. Hospitals in Europe, South America, Russia and China have been doing this but not in Canada. A handful of photographers in Canada have been given very limited hospital access.

Several major Canadian hospitals have photographers, (often former news photographers), either on contract or on call. And yet, after eight months, almost nothing.

Photos inform the public.

Photos influence politicians.

Photos record history.

Photos make it real.

[Warren Toda]

This Pandemic Must Be Seen. An article in Wired.

[Daniel Crump]

Thanks for bringing this up Warren. It's something I've spent most of the year thinking on. A lot of my initial reaction to this pandemic, how to prepare for it, how bad it was/would potentially be, etc... came from photos that were coming from places like New York. Especially the work of Angus Mordant who was getting assignments in hospitals, morgues, places where things were really really bad. It made the whole thing a lot more real than the thousands and thousands of stories/words alone. The fact that Leah's photo went viral, I think, shows that there is an interest and a need for this kind of work to be done. Now that Canada's cases have sky rocketed this seems all the more relevant here. Even in the states where it's worse now than it ever was, yet there seems to be far less visual coverage, it all seems so much less pressing and further away. Am curious why these photos aren't being made by hospitals, or news orgs.