RPS Member Category Winner - David Collyer 'All in a Day’s Work'

As a documentary photographer, when Covid-19 first came on to the radar in the UK, I knew that in some way I wanted to record the imprint it was bound to leave on society. Simultaneously, as a healthcare professional working as an Anaesthetic Practitioner, in a hospital in South Wales, I was well placed to see at first hand the effects that the unfolding pandemic was having not just on patients, but on the staff, my colleagues, and also on myself.

There was a rhetoric during the first wave of the pandemic that many healthcare professionals were uncomfortable with, and one that we felt was being used by politicians who may not actually have the best interests of the NHS or its staff at heart, and that was the pushing of the image of “NHS Heroes”. This sat very uneasily with me. From my perspective, we went to work and did the job we were paid for, and this was a view shared by many.

It would have been easy to photograph patients, but I felt this was to an extent voyeuristic, but I was lucky that I was one of very few photographers given access to clinical areas so early in the crisis. I decided to effectively turn the camera vicariously back on myself, using my tight knit group of colleagues, to show a human face, and not the eulogised heroes of popular parlance. I wanted to capture light hearted moments as well as the exhaustion, but also to portray a sense of claustrophobia that we were feeling from the restrictions of the PPE.

The title, ‘All in a Day’s Work’, was designed to show that for us that’s exactly what it was. I shot the project entirely on film, and because I needed to maintain my clinical duties as well as being a photographer, I shot with a basic point and shoot that I could use discreetly, and keep clean. I was very fortunate that the work received international media coverage, including a national newspaper front page, and was published as a book. My ultimate aim was to record a snapshot of a time that few will forget.

davidcollyerphotography.com

I’ve been taking photos, with varying degrees of dedication, since the 80s when I learned the craft shadowing press photographers on a newspaper edited by my father. My predominant interest is in telling people’s stories, or how the land has been shaped by man’s activities. Most of my work has a loose theme of transition running through it. I’m soon to start shooting a project for Cancer Research Wales, looking at breaking down taboos around cancer, and seeing people as more than just a diagnosis - something that is close to my heart having had a cancer diagnosis myself. I’m also working towards publishing a book about a transgender woman in her fifties, as well as having other ongoing projects. I live in South Wales with my partner and four cats, surrounded by mountains and an ever growing library of photography books.

I was motivated to begin this project whilst working as an Operating Department Practitioner. As a busy district general hospital, we were due to be downgraded when a new hospital opening nearby, took all the acute patients within the trust. When Covid reared its ugly head, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to document how staff were coping with the strains of the pandemic, set against a background of uncertainty over the future of their roles. I was also keen to show the human faces behind the NHS Heroes rhetoric, which I felt had been hijacked by political voices that didn’t have the best interests of the NHS at heart. This is a small selection from over one hundred photos that were published in my book All in a Day’s Work, which I’m hoping to submit for a Fellowship accreditation.

I hope that people look at this and realise the strains under which NHS staff work, not just through this pandemic, but against a constant background of underfunding and short staffing. I also hope that the humour needed when working under adversity shines through.

I shot the project entirely on film, and that obviously brings its own challenges in terms of processing. Other than that, the challenges were clinical rather than photographic. I shot for approximately two months in the period leading up to and during the first wave. I could have continued but felt that the story as I wanted to tell it had been told by that point.

I tend to have a loose idea in my mind about the direction I want the project to take, but I’m very happy to let the narrative unfold in front of me, as happened in this case. Originally this project was intended very much as a series of photos, to be a document of what staff were enduring, but it very quickly grew legs, and international media latched on to it. The rest is really history! Other than that, planning is logistical - which cameras, which film stock, whether I have an outlet for publication.