May 31, 2020
Chatting the Pictures

Chatting the Pictures: Here Are the Photos of People Suffering and Dying of Covid

Welcome to the latest edition of Chatting the Pictures. In each 10-minute webcast, co-hosts Michael Shaw, publisher of Reading the Pictures, and writer and historian, Cara Finnegan, discuss three prominent photos in the news. This week, distinguished photographer and professor Nina Berman joins us to discuss three images from an article we published at Reading the Pictures titled “Here Are the Photos of People Suffering and Dying of Covid.”

Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, and author. Her wide-ranging work looks at American politics, militarism, environmental contamination and post violence trauma. She is also a professor and director of the photography program at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

By Staff
About the Video

The first photo was taken by John Moore for Getty Images. It shows EMTs preparing to unload COVID-19 transfer patients at the Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. We discuss the unusual impact of the outdoor setting, and the vantage of the photographer in bringing intimacy to a scene of crisis and emergency.

The second image was taken by paramedic Danny Kim for TIME. In this photo, a coronavirus patient under a plastic tent is being prepared to be intubated by an anesthesiologist. The discussion emphasizes the importance of science and medicine in a political environment that has been lacking that understanding.

The third photo  was taken by Philip Montgomery for New York Times Magazine. In it, we a funeral director retrieving the body of a Covid-19 patient from a refrigerated trailer. We focus on the different ways this photograph personalizes death as the country struggles to absorb it at an enormous scale.

You can find all the Chatting the Pictures replays here.

 

The Full Edit

Take a closer look at some of the images from our larger photo edit.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Caption: An EMT wearing personal protective equipment prepares to unload COVID-19 transfer patients at the Montefiore Medical Center Wakefield Campus on April 6 in the Bronx borough of New York City.

Photo: Danny Kim for TIME

Caption: A COVID-19 positive patient being prepared to be intubated by the anesthesiologist. The plastic tent is so the virus isn’t spread while transporting the patient between units.

Photo: Philip Montgomery/The New York Times

Caption: Nick Farenga retrieves the body of a Covid-19 patient from a refrigerated trailer outside a hospital. (A small area on one body bag was altered to obscure a name to protect the privacy of the deceased.

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Panelists

Michael Shaw

An analyst of news photos and visual journalism, and a frequent lecturer and writer on visual politics, photojournalism and media literacy, Michael is the founder and publisher of Reading the Pictures.

Cara Finnegan

Communication Professor, University of Illinois. Author of Making Photography Matter: A Viewer’s History from the Civil War to the Great Depression and Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs. Moderator, Reading the Pictures Salon.

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Nina Berman

Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, and author. Her wide-ranging work looks at American politics, militarism, environmental contamination and post violence trauma. She is also a professor and director of the photography program at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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