One shot: AP photographers reflect on covering the pandemic, and the image that most affected them
By Alyssa Goodman, Nicole Winfield, Rodrigo Abd, Oded Balilty, Ariana Cubillos, Felipe Dana, Jerome Delay, Han Guan Ng, Jae Hong, John Minchillo, Emilio Morenatti, Ebrahim Noroozi, Andre Penner, Natacha Pisarenko, Manish Swarup, Alessandra Tarantino and Alexander Zemlianichenko
Since the start of the pandemic, AP photographers, as much as any journalists, have been on the front lines of coverage, taking on risks to bring the world scenes of struggle, death, comfort and hope. And in many ways the images had a profound impact on the photographers themselves.
So as the world approached another grim pandemic milestone of 3 million deaths, New York’s Top Stories Hub photo editor Alyssa Goodman sought to bring new perspective and insight to a wrenching year. She asked a group of photographers to each select the one image from their virus coverage that affected them most, and describe why.
Holocaust survivor Yehoshua Datsinger places tefillin — small boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah — on his arm above the tattooed Auschwitz concentration camp identification number during morning prayer at a synagogue limited to 20 people during lockdown in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sept. 21, 2020. Photographer Oded Balilty said he was struck that even though older people were the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, Datsinger still went to synagogue every morning to pray. “He survived this latest war as well,” Balilty said. – AP Photo / Oded Balilty
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. AP 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
Father Vasily Gelevan, a Russian Orthodox priest, blesses Lyudmila Polyak, 86, believed to be suffering from COVID-19, at her apartment in Moscow, June 1, 2020. AP 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
South African National Defense Forces patrol the Men’s Hostel in densely populated Alexandra township east of Johannesburg, March 28, 2020, enforcing a strict lockdown in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus. Photographer Jerome Delay said the scene reminded him of South Africa before apartheid ended in 1994, with the army raiding the hostel not looking for guns but enforcing a strict lockdown that included a ban on the use of cigarettes and alcohol. He says he still hears the men, packed six to a room, shouting down the halls: “If we can’t go out and can’t work, we can’t eat.” – AP Photo / Jerome Delay
Cemetery workers in protective clothing bury a person at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, April 1, 2020. Photographer Andre Penner said he was initially afraid of covering funerals because he feared he might get infected and bring the virus home to his family, so he used a drone. The effect though was two-fold: It kept him at a safe distance, but it also showed the vast scope of the burial field — a reality that President Jair Bolsonaro denied when he appeared live on social media to call the photograph “fake news.” – AP Photo / Andre Penner
Blanca Ortiz, 84, celebrates after learning that she will be discharged from the Eurnekian Ezeiza Hospital on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug. 13, 2020, several weeks after being admitted with COVID-19. Photographer Natacha Pisarenko said the moment was one of the few she witnessed in months of covering COVID-19 in which doctors and nurses allowed themselves to feel joy. “The moment made all of us in the room with her laugh and feel hopeful again,” Pisarenko said. “It was the brightest moment for me while covering such a heavy story.” – AP Photo / Natacha Pisarenko
Otilia Maria Martinez Dos Santos, an artist of Portuguese descent, poses for a portrait at the Rony Roller circus, parked on the outskirts of Rome, 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. This 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
The daughter of a migrant laborer, quarantined with her parents at a government school, waits for her father to return with food packets in New Delhi, India, 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
Venezuelan funeral home workers, from left, Luis Zerpa, Luis Brito, and Jhoan Faneite, carry the body of Marcos Espinoza, 51, who died from coronavirus in his remote and precarious house in a poor neighborhood of Pachacamac on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, May 8, 2020. Photographer Rodrigo Abd said the image encapsulates the injustices that the pandemic exposed: the plight of Venezuelan migrant funeral workers doing a job to survive despite the risks; the high mortality rate among Peru’s poorest and the harshness of the desert landscape around Lima, where more than 10 million people live without water or basic services. “I will never forget this image for all that it represents,” Abd said. – AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd
Men who were detained for not complying with COVID-19 regulations by breaking curfew or attending block parties are transported in a police van in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 8, 2020. AP photographer Ariana Cubillos says the image “made me realize COVID-19 has caged us and taken away our freedom of movement. It struck me as ironic that the same authorities enforcing the curfew were putting these men at risk of contagion by breaking the very social distancing rules authorities put in place.” – AP Photo / Ariana Cubillos
From left, volunteer clerics Hassan Khabir, Ali Rahimi and Mohammad Hossein Khoshnazar wear protective clothing as they prepare for burial the body of a 59-year-old man who died from COVID-19 on the outskirts of the city of Ghaemshahr, in northern Iran, Dec. 19, 2020. AP photographer Ebrahim Noroozi says of the image: “I was filled with so much grief and sorrow; seeing the body of that dead man in such a cold and dark room that I could not even raise my camera to take a picture” at first. “But the devotion and sacrifice of the three volunteers,” who have buried some 500 bodies, “are the rays of hope … We should still stay hopeful.” – AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
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. AP 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
A child wearing a mask rests along the Yangtze River in Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei province, April 5, 2020, just days before the lifting of the city’s 76-day coronavirus lockdown. AP photographer Ng Han Guan says of the photo: “Personally the photo summed up my feelings being in the city which was unceremoniously shut down and residents forced into a comatose state of inactivity that somehow became normalized.” Though the riverbank scene is Idyllic, he says, “In the background a slumbering city skyline is ready to hum back to life.” – AP Photo / Ng Han Guan
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. AP 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
Working closely with London-based Deputy Director of Photography Tony Hicks, they chose a group of 15 AP photographers in 13 countries:
Rodrigo Abd, Lima — Oded Balilty, Jerusalem — Ariana Cubillos, Caracas — Felipe Dana, on assignment in Brazil — Jerome Delay, Johannesburg — Han Guan Ng, Beijing — Jae Hong, Los Angeles — John Minchillo, New York — Emilio Morenatti, Barcelona — Ebrahim Noroozi, Tehran — Andre Penner, Sao Paulo — Natacha Pisarenko, Buenos Aires — Manish Swarup, New Delhi — Alessandra Tarantino, Rome — Alexander Zemlianichenko, Moscow
New York photographer John Minchillo prepares his gear before entering the emergency room of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Yonkers, N.Y., April 20, 2020. – AP Photo / Julie Jacobson
AP photographer Alessandro Tarantino documents COVID treatment in an intensive care unit of the San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome, October 29, 2020. –
One day after the general election, AP photographer Frank Franklin II covers a “count the vote” protest near Trump Tower in New York, Nov. 4, 2020. – AP Photo / Ted Shaffrey
AP Moscow chief photographer Alexander Zemlianichenko, left, poses with Father Vasily Gelevan, after Gelevan blessed an 86-year-old woman suspected of having coronavirus at her apartment in Moscow, June 1, 2020. –
AP photographer Felipe Dana works inside an intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients in Badalona, Spain, April 1, 2020. – AP Photo / Renata Brito
The images selected were powerful on their own, but what elevated this piece beyond a good “how I got the shot” package was Rome reporter Nicole Winfield’s elegant writing, weaving the photographers’ quotes into a rich and moving narrative.
The resulting package offers compelling insight into the emotional impact of being there,on the other side of the camera,witnessing the effects of the pandemic up close — the fear of infection,the honor of being present in an intimate moment,despair and hope. The work received more than 100,000 views on AP platforms and was widely complimented by readers and customers.
PHOTOS: Final goodbyes. Reunions after COVID-19 kept them apart for months. Nurses, funeral workers and clerics risking their own health to do their jobs. Fifteen @AP photographers picked the single pandemic image that affected them the most. https://t.co/pKS5ObJIcL
For adding a new and creative dimension to some of AP’s most deeply moving photography of the coronavirus pandemic,Goodman, Winfield and this dedicated team of photojournalists — representing their AP colleagues worldwide — earn AP’s Best of the Week honors.
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