Capturing the pandemic for posterity

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IN MID-APRIL of intensive-care beds at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York were occupied by patients with covid-19. Karen Cunningham was caring for them: intubating the worst-affected and responding to countless emergency messages on the hospital’s tannoy. She was also taking photographs, capturing images of medical staff who were, to her surprise, eager to be included. Ms Cunningham says she felt a moral obligation to relay her colleagues’ experiences to the public.

A professional photographer, ten years ago she also became a registered nurse. When a friend at the New Yorker had first suggested she take her camera to work, Ms Cunningham was sceptical. But at the time reporting from inside hospitals was rare, and amid the pandemic photography could be a powerful public-health tool. So she agreed to shoot on the wards, often laying down her camera to help turn patients onto their fronts to ease breathing difficulties.

The results are an intimate...