ST PAUL, Minn. — COVID-19 has served as an inspiration for a doctor at Regions Hospital.
He took his part-time passion, combined it with his full-time profession and a photo project was born.
“Life in the hospital after COVID has been completely different,” says Dr. Avi Nahum.
Masks, hats and protective gear are lifesavers for our front-line workers, but something about the wearing of PPE struck a chord with Dr. Nahum.
“You really cannot recognize people unless they speak, or if you're observant, if you know to look into their eyes,” he says.
Dr. Nahum first opined about it on Facebook, but then was inspired to do something more.
“I've never before have taken my camera into the hospital. Never ever. And now I walk with my camera all day long. It's quite weird,” says Dr. Nahum.
On May 11 he started taking photos of hospital staff, just their eyes, a few here and there.
“I feel like for a lot of the nurses, you just really feel seen, especially by a physician that you work with everyday, so it's pretty cool,” says Bri Lukkason, a nurse at Regions.
So far more than 200 front-line workers have posed for the pics, and they just keep lining up.
"I call it my photo booth, come to my photo booth, and they know where to come,” says Dr. Nahum.
“It's kind of gotten so big now, where everyone is waiting for whose picture is going to come up next, and we all try and guess on who it is,” says Bri.
When will he stop? When he runs out of people to take pictures of, Dr. Nahum says. If you were given a half-hour, you probably couldn't adequately explain what has transpired during this pandemic, yet each picture seems to sum it up on its own. Nahum is not exactly sure why this has meant so much to so many, but he's glad it has.
"It's almost like people want to mark it. They were here during COVID and they lived it. That's the best I can explain,” he says.
Dr. Nahum is also an entrant in an international photo contest for his pictures captured at Regions Hospital.