Since the pandemic began I’ve wanted to do some kind of documentary project. This is a historic time, and photographers and other artists are the people who transmit the message of their time to future generations. When a person thinks of the Great Depression, they likely think of the iconic dustbowl images by Dorothea Lange. When I will think of the Great Pause that happened when governments shut down their countries all over the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I know I’ll always remember the sobering photos by Lucas Jackson of the mass graves being dug on NYC’s Hart Island.
But what else should we remember once this time has passed by? As overused as the quote is, I also think of Fred Rogers’ words. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
I worked with my town to create a series of portraits of the local helpers—first responders and essential workers. Society asks them to show up so we can still have a tiny degree of normalcy. Some of them are heroes who do this by choice, like our incredible volunteers at the fire department who took the Easter Bunny on a tour of our town, delighting adults and children alike from the safety of their front doors or lawns, or the amazing volunteers at our First Aid Squad who show up on Easter Sunday, taking each other’s temperatures before the shift begins to make sure all are healthy, with PPE that was used while helping COVID-19 positive patients hanging ominously in an adjacent room.
Some of these essential workers and first responders show up because it’s in the job description to show up. I was fortunate to be welcomed by our local police for portraits. They’re wearing PPE at all times and interacting with the public every single day. I wonder how many of them imagined this would be a reality and risk their families would have to deal with. Meanwhile, every day before the sun comes up, the employees at Department of Public Works are working to make things safe for themselves by sanitizing the cabs of the trucks. On the morning I visited it was raining and windy, but the gentleman I was photographing was still perfectly meticulous in cleaning any surfaces the guys would be touching during their shifts.
We’ve got our heroic volunteers and first responders, but some of the people in these photos probably don’t have a choice about showing up. These are the people who may be living paycheck to paycheck, or who own their own small business and have associated financial responsibilities they need to meet for their business (and families) to survive this pandemic. They don’t have the luxury of staying home and keeping their families safe from the potential reach of COVID-19. I’m not sure if they would want to be called heroes if there’s a possibility that they might feel more like captives of a system that doesn’t support all the classes of society equally.
These are the people I want to thank, and the people who deserve to be seen, recognized, and if needed, helped. When they ask for a living wage, they should have it—in good times and bad. They shouldn’t be met with incredulous pearl-clutching in response, and comments about how other “more valuable” workers aren’t paid much more than what these people are asking for. That’s the incorrect takeaway to their request. The correct takeaway is that those other “more valuable” workers deserve to make more than they’re making now, too.
I hope everyone who reads this or glances over my work will come through this okay, along with their loved ones. Stay safe.
