AP PHOTOS: Photographers reflect on single shot of pandemic

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https://apnews.com/article/photography-pandemics-ap-top-news-coronavirus-pandemic-ee22b9c3badb6f8b0343b6b7a5ea49ae

AP PHOTOS: Photographers reflect on single shot of pandemic
By NICOLE WINFIELD

ROME (AP) — The images show the intimacy of husbands and wives saying goodbye for the last time, or reuniting after months apart. They honor the courage of nurses, funeral workers and clerics who risked their own health to do their jobs. They witness life slipping away, and being snatched back from death.

To mark the milestone of 3 million COVID-19 deaths worldwide, The Associated Press asked 15 photographers in 13 countries to pick the single image they shot that affected them the most, and explain why.

Their selections document the staggering human toll as COVID-19 robbed millions of their lives, and millions more of their basic freedoms and day-to-day routines over the past year. But their reflections tell a deeper story, guiding the viewer to see and understand a once-in-a-century pandemic through the eyes of people who had the privilege and horror of witnessing it up close.

Just like their subjects, the AP photographers were terrified they might get infected and bring the virus home. Just like their subjects, they remain haunted by what they saw. Just like their subjects, they found moments of hope.



Father Vasily Gelevan, a Russian Orthodox priest, blesses Lyudmila Polyak, 86, who is believed to be suffering from COVID-19, at her apartment in Moscow, June 1, 2020. Associated Press photographer Alexander Zemlianichenko says this of the image: “I feel it’s both very intimate and also deeply symbolic, an image of empathy and self-denial in the face of mortal danger.” He says taking the photo was “also very important for me on a personal level, an experience that transformed me, helping overcome my own fear” of the virus. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)



SOS Funeral workers transport by boat a coffin carrying the body of an 86-year-old woman who lived by the Negro River and is suspected to have died of COVID-19, near Manaus, Brazil, May 14, 2020. Associated Press photographer Felipe Dana says this of shooting the photo: “I’ll never forget the scene of the funeral service workers wearing full hazmat suits, navigating along the Negro River as the sun disappeared in the horizon. It was the moment I realized how the virus had spread everywhere.” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)



Otilia Maria Martinez Dos Santos, an artist of Portuguese origin, poses for a portrait at the Rony Roller circus, parked in the outskirts of Rome, Saturday, April 18, 2020. Photographer Alessandra Tarantino said she came up with the idea to shoot circus workers after growing frustrated and bored with the postcard-like shots of an empty Rome during lockdown. The shot was taken between poses, with the swing seemingly attached to the sky. “Her empty gaze, lost in the void, deeply affected me. It’s hard to dance without the music,” Tarantino said. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)



A daughter of a migrant laborer who has been quarantined with her parents at a government school waits for her father to return with food packets in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Photographer Manish Swarup said the girl’s forlorn look and confinement behind the bars of the school epitomized the imprisonment people around the world felt being cooped up at home. “It encapsulates the widespread distress caused by the lockdown, through the eyes of a child, whose life had ground to a halt,” he said. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)



Romelia Navarro, 64, weeps while hugging her husband, Antonio, in his final moments in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020. Photographer Jae C. Hong said even though he had the family’s consent to be there, he struggled to shoot the intimate scene, feeling uneasy to even pick up his camera and document the end of someone’s life. “Capturing someone else’s painful emotion never gets easier,” Hong said. “What I saw that day still haunts me from time to time.” (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)



Nurses and doctors clear themselves before defibrillating a patient who tested positive for COVID-19 and suddenly went "Code 99," or into cardiac arrest, in Yonkers, N.Y., April 20, 2020. The emergency room team successfully revived the patient. Associated Press photographer John Minchillo says of witnessing their heroic efforts: “Seeing the medical team risk death to save the life of a stranger, knowing the air surrounding us was teeming with particles from intubated patients' lungs, left me grateful for good people in this world. My respect for these New Yorkers is boundless.” (AP Photo/John Minchillo)



Agustina Canamero, 81, and Pascual Pérez, 84, hug and kiss through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the new coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, June 22, 2020. Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti says this of the image: “I couldn’t help feeling emotional myself while I was shooting, and I realized that such an eternal moment symbolized something more than a simple meeting. The plastic kept the virus but not the love away.” (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

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