As a Baltimore-based nurse and award-winning photographer, Morton has a special eye for human resilience. Who else, then, to visually record a health caregiver’s perspective on the coronavirus surge?
Her hospital photographs depict a sense of quiet, sterile expectation and readiness. (To obtain permission to take photographs inside the hospital, she agreed not to identify where she works.) She describes her changed routine, the rising number of confirmed cases, and getting fitted for protective equipment. “A small mistake in sealing the mask could be fatal,” she wrote.
We reached out to Morton to learn more about her diary and photos, the process, and the act of documenting personal experiences. Her emailed responses are below:
Your photos and diary begin, as you point out, days before the first confirmed case in MD. How and when did you decide this would be worth chronicling?
I always knew I wanted to work on a story about healthcare workers. With the advent of COVID-19, it became even more important to feature the voices of those [on] the frontlines. We see images of exhausted healthcare workers all the time, and I wanted people to have a deeper understanding of the events that lead to that.
As things were starting to change in Maryland, I reached out to editors to talk about possible story ideas on the healthcare system and workers. Originally, I was skeptical about pursuing my narrative. Being in the operating room, I did not see myself as someone truly on the frontlines. Our COVID patients would have surgery and be transported to their units. I would only be taking care of them in a transient period, unlike nurses who would take care of many of them at the same time for their whole shift. Although I still struggle with an imposter syndrome, I realized that the intimacy I can offer can shed light to the experiences of healthcare workers. So, I chose to start on March 17, 2020, Tuesday — 12 days after the first confirmed case in Maryland and the last day I felt like things would be “normal.”
Read on
for Morton’s advice to others documenting this pandemic.
