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There have been dramatic images from the battle against coronaviruses around the world and in the United States as well. However, when a physician treating patients is the photographer himself, there is a greater level of privacy involved as he understands what both caregivers and patients are going through.
Dr. Scott Kobner is the senior emergency resident at USC Los Angeles County Medical Center, one of the largest public health systems in the country.
“Every day off that I had or sometimes after shifts, I stayed or came to do this kind of work to try to really play a totally different role, a role that had nothing to do with the medical care provided. . but in a position where I could use my knowledge and experience to help others see the world through my own experience, ”Dr. Kobner tells NPR.
NPR’s Rachel Martin interviewed Kobner about her photography for Morning edition. You can listen to the 10-minute conversation here:
Dr Kobner is an amateur photographer and when the pandemic hit he started using his Leica M6 and M10 cameras to record emergency room events. These photos were published by the Los Angeles Times this week. When you think of the Leica, historical images of wars, pandemics and other tragedies come to mind. The coronavirus is indeed the greatest tragedy of modern times that still refuses to go away quietly.
Photography is not my daily job. It’s not my night shift either. My job day and night is emergency medicine. Being an emergency doctor will always be my first love. But photography is a close second. The more you know about the two, the more they are alike… Photography is the state of mind of recognition and preservation of the ephemeral. The rest is just chemistry. –From the Kobner website.
The photos are all black and white and have the dark, austere look of a struggle between life and death, which they actually capture. It may be dark scenes set in another location for viewers, but for Dr. Kobner, it is the reality in front of him that he is recording.
“It is a sacred honor to be with human beings during their most vulnerable times, especially their last moments on Earth,” writes Dr Kobner on his Instagram.
Dr Kobner doesn’t want his photographs to distract him in any way from his vital hospital duties and therefore only capture images on his days off. He also makes it clear to patients that he is not involved in their care when taking pictures. Although the hospital allowed him to photograph his operations, he also made sure to get permission from each patient.
Dr Kobner grew up in Flemington, New Jersey, and attended New York University School of Medicine. Last spring, when he saw the pandemic completely invade his home state of New York, he knew it would not take long for the virus to enter California and wreak similar havoc.
The photo that touched him the most was that of his colleague Dr Molly Grassini, trying and hoping a patient would return. At the start of the pandemic, a young patient suffered cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital. The team was desperately trying to revive him, and Dr Grassini stares at the monitor with those hopeful eyes, simply asking to see a heartbeat or a sign of life.
“I think the best part about photography is that there is undeniable narrative authority,” says Dr. Kobner NPR. “You know, when you see a photograph, you know it was a documentation of a snapshot in time, and it wasn’t a reinvention of anything.
“It wasn’t a drawing or a painting where, you know, a lot of details could be – or had to be recalled or changed … lack, I think, of that narrative authority that something like photography can provide.
Dr Kobner wants his photos to show the general public what is really going on in hospitals as they work around the clock to somehow save lives that are still slipping away.
(via NPR and LA Times)
About the Author: Phil Mistry is a photographer and teacher based in Atlanta, GA. He started one of the first digital camera courses in New York at The International Center of Photography in the 90s. He was director and teacher of the Digital Days workshops for Sony magazine / Popular Photography. You can reach him by e-mail here.
Image credits: All photos are by Dr. Scott Kobner and used with permission.
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