Why I . . . take photographs

Countless words have been written about the pandemic—but the photographs taken of doctors and patients during that time were able to communicate in a way that words could not.

When covid-19 hit, anaesthetic registrar Jon Williamson used his photographic skills to document it from his perspective working at the Whittington Hospital in north London. His images, some of which were reproduced in the national media, capture the experiences at the hospital at that time. They include a baby born by caesarean section with the mother wearing a facemask, and a simple close up of a colleague coming out of intensive care, whose emotions mirrored his own.

The experience of taking such images is complex, says Williamson. “You have a heavy sense of purpose—a large sense of duty to convey the story of what is going on. At times it was emotionally challenging, but there was also a sense that you were doing something valuable,” he recalls.

Williamson was given his first camera aged 5 and had a compact digital camera as a teenager. He received a more advanced digital single lens reflex camera for his 18th birthday, “which let me experiment more.”

Photography had always been a side hobby until he took a diploma in expedition medicine at the end of his foundation year, which involved a trip to Morocco. “I was out late at night taking photos of scorpions glowing in the dark under UV lights. There was the discovery of unexpected things—and also the creativity and magic you could get from these images and seeing the world in a different way,” he says.

As an anaesthetic registrar, Williamson was approached to do some medical photography to illustrate an online course on anaesthesia, showing clinical pictures in practice, at University College London. This proved to be “a gateway to doing new and interesting things with my photography,” he says.

Shortly after came covid-19. “I was talking to the head of the anaesthetic department, who was also my supervisor, who knew I was interested in photography. There was a mutual feeling that I should document the pandemic,” he says.

Because of the difficult conditions and need for minimal use of equipment, this proved to be a photographic challenge. “There was a lot of special care and attention involved in thinking about how to document the pandemic. I wanted to show the realities of what was happening, including staff going about their day-to-day work,” he says.

His process included checking it was safe and appropriate to take an image, and looking at the scene and how he could capture it. “With photojournalism there are so many challenges. There’s ethics, and being factually correct. You have to represent the individual you are photographing and be true to them,” he says. Soon his images were appearing in the national press and on TV news channels.

Taking these photographs “was a heavy responsibility and an amazing opportunity—one that came at a cost in terms of time and energy, but was worth while,” he says.

Photography now takes up around a fifth of his time. He has been taking photographs for expedition medicine courses, has done some adventure photography, and is working on illustrating another online medical course. He also enjoys other genres of photography in his spare time, such as in astrophotography, “discovering images of the night sky and the Milky Way.”

Photography gives Williamson something that “isn’t just about being a doctor—it’s also a way of creating something, capturing a bit of magic, or discovering something new.” Through taking photographs he has gained “a lot more insight into patients’ experiences,” he says. Williamson finds photography and anaesthesia are similar in that they have technical and scientific elements to them as well as being an art. He says it’s not uncommon for doctors, especially anaesthetists, to be into photography. “We love a technical hobby,” he jokes.

With the pressures of modern life, photography is “a gateway to joining the natural world and engaging with the world as a whole. It allows you to take time out from the day-to-day,” he says.

Looking back at the pandemic Williamson is glad he made the effort to document what was happening. “It does, in parts, seem like a distant dream. Without those images you might forget. It’s important to look back on that time, and to have that record.”