Photographing the invisible enemy

ILAN OSSENDRYVER

Just as governments, doctors, armies, and police are all learning to fight this new enemy, so we photographers are learning to document the invisible enemy in a new way.

When a war photographer is sent to cover a war, there is a set routine. The photographer will pack his passport, camera equipment, Imodium, and portable music, head to the airport, and fly into some inhospitable city or area to document the conflict. At the landing zone, he will be met by an immigration officer who will probably see him as a nuisance or someone crazy enough to put himself in danger, not understanding the journalist mindset. Photojournalists need to tell a story. Many photographs have influenced public opinion or changed the behaviour of governments. Take the Vietnam War, for example.

Once we photojournalists “settle down” in the war zone, we study the battle lines – how to cover the conflict, who can be trusted, and who definitely can’t. In most cases, there are two opposing sides. One firing in one direction, and the other firing back. You have to know where to position yourself to keep safe and capture the best possible images in dangerous conditions. Both sides, you learn, don’t really want you there unless you’re on their side. It’s the same with the virus – it doesn’t care if you are a photographer, nurse, or day care teacher.

With COVID-19, there are no enemy lines and no visible warring groups or armies to photograph. It’s a blank canvas. With COVID-19, everyone around you has the potential to be your enemy. Your grocer, butcher, the man or woman on the street, the door handle of your car or bicycle, even your wife and children! We don’t know who is carrying the virus, how it will somehow get to us, enter our lungs, and eventually kill us. The new war zone is our city, neighbourhood, even our home.

Conflict photography has now evolved into street photography, but with a twist. The streets, once heavily congested with traffic and people, have become quiet and lonely. It’s silent, as opposed to the exploding of bombs, passing jet fighters, the rumble of tanks, or the sound of guns being cocked and fired. In a war zone, tensions are high and adrenaline is pumping. Finding a place of safety to photograph is important – normally getting behind a wall will keep you safe. Today, the wall is called “social distancing”.

Documenting COVID-19 causes mixed emotions. The streets are quiet, relaxed, and then, you wonder, “Where is it?” You just don’t know, and it makes you nervous. The gun becomes the cough or sneeze. The war-torn streets become the corridors of the intensive-care unit or isolation room. Even soldiers are finding it strange to not see the enemy.

We photojournalists now pack differently. Instead of a traditional flak jacket (to protect us from shrapnel or a stray bullet that perhaps is aimed at us) and helmet (in case we get hit in the head by a brick or a projectile), today’s war photographer dresses like everyone else. We take photographs wearing a flimsy face mask and some hard-to-put-on plastic gloves that always land up tearing. The best thing about the gloves is the part when you blow into them so they expand to make it easier to slip on. They are quite comical filled with air (potentially the enemy).

The flak jacket is now our tissue or elbow used to cough into. Today’s essentials include hand sanitizer and a mask – in the past, I would have just brought onion to counter the effects of teargas. The difference is that we are out there with a camera taking photographs while the average person just wants to get home safely as soon as possible to escape the invisible enemy.

When covering conflict, some photographers think they’re invincible and nothing can happen to them. Seasoned photographers say this can be a life-threatening attitude. In all situations, like the doctors working with coronavirus patients, the police on the street, the people working the tills, we need to heed basic precautions. Keep indoors, and when you do get home, wash your hands. I spray my cameras to get rid of the invisible enemy.