Van der Weert said: "On 12 March 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. His words where sombre, describing the situation as ‘the worst public health crisis for a generation’ before preparing us for the reality that ‘many of us will lose loved ones before there time’."
Photographer Jessica van der Weert spent days with healthcare workers in Northumbria and Brent – from Consultant Physicians to nurses, porters and volunteers - to create a stark and compelling landscape of the UK during the most terrifying health crisis of our time.
She said "Listening to the broadcast I was shocked by the pm’s words, but determined to capture powerful images of the frontline impact on healthcare professionals, while also documenting the social history of the pandemic." With financial support from the Jerwood Foundation and working in partnership with the Royal College of Physicians, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and ATMedics (Brent), the powerful portraits capture the stories of those who put themselves in the direct path of the virus, often with very little protection, by caring for patients as the country went into lockdown. Supporting the portraits is series of images taken in intensive and palliative care settings, as well as reportage photos with paramedics, a district nurse and volunteer workers in a temporary factory set up to urgently produce much needed PPE. The exhibition is the first to launch from the RCP’s new northern home in Liverpool, The Spine.
Watch this video to here from one of the event organizers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22E5xmh7kW0&ab_channel=RoyalCollegeofPhy...
Find out more here https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/selfless-their-own-words
For more information email Debbie Bassett (debbie.bassett@rcp.ac.uk).
The exhibition is open to the public from 19th May to 19th June (Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm), after which it will move to the RCP at Regent’s Park in London from July 1.