One of the things that I have continued to do during the pandemic was to appraise doctors. It used to be that the main issue for GPs pre-pandemic was workload, then it was the pandemic with its new ways of working, and now it’s back to concerns about “too much work.” Stress levels with doctors are very high, and it is not unusual to see that in a GP appraisal, where we often look at how we can reduce work. I’ve reduced my work by retiring and returning to reduced and controlled work as a GP returner, and that tactic of working fewer sessions is one that many GPs employ to reduce stress levels. We also look in the appraisal at services that might help them to cope better. 

Stress is real and damaging. That is a theme in my photographic work. COVID-19 has made stress worse, as shown in my more recent images. Still, my images about anxiety or displacement are timeless and could have been made any time as they articulate doctor and non-doctor distress. 

A year ago, I heard a consultant psychiatrist/psychotherapist speak to a large group of appraisers. He has spent the last 15 years treating doctors with stress and burnout, and mental illnesses. I was impressed by his calm approach and some of his ideas.

Several months ago, I had the idea of creating a short zine with my images and an interview with an experienced therapist. We met at my home, recorded an audio interview, and produced a zine which hopefully will find an outlet with a doctor mental health charity. We will see how that works out in this next six months. 

I have been thinking and photographing for the last 8 months about my experience of consulting as a doctor at home during the pandemic, and some of these images appear here on my site. I have found it difficult to find new ways to show that experience. Initial photographs taken at home or nearby did not adequately show my experience, and it was only with adopting a more abstract approach, encouraged by my degree tutor Gary Clarkson, that I think that I am now finding my way. 

The series ‘Shattered’ is based on a single shot of a broken flagstone in a hospital car park. I have used archive and other images to construct a series which is about matching images visually rather than on my love for a particular image or images. I think that this works well as an autoethnographic series using vernacular forms.

The staged images in my consulting ‘Room’ illustrate Freudian and other theoretical frameworks that describe adaptating to Covid. I haven’t labelled them here; there are tentative labels on my Instagram feed. These images more closely reflect some of my feelings about Covid, such as anger at delayed lockdown, the dismantling of Health Promotion and outsourcing of the work to private companies, the shortage of PPE, the deaths in Care Homes…

Sarah Hobbs work ‘Small Problems of living’ was a significant influence.

The series, ‘Power’ is based on the idea and practice of ‘assemblage’ as in ‘Mrs and Mrs Fork’ by Man Ray (1927) and the contemporary assemblage of Sarah Lucas. I am not settled on the body of work that I will submit for my OCA photographic degree but an accompanying academic paper is about medical dominance in image making and dissemination. These constructed images are a challenge to medical and governmental dominance and power, or are whimsical or something else. 

As this is a work in progress these images may change or I will do something different to show what I think and feel about ‘being in Covid.’

Much of my work and photography is in health and social care, although I have persuaded a few friends to take part in my projects. This project is closer to home and is about ‘working people’ in my neighbourhood. Some of these people I know from using their services and others are strangers to me. Historically images of working people are problematic because the photographer often wants to ‘classify’ or label people and their occupations, sometimes ordering them heirachically, and can be seen as manipulation and even ‘classist.’ I am a doctor and I don’t work in the community where I live - will that affect how people relate to me and how I portray them? 

I want to produce photographs of people who work, largely in local shops and services, in negotiation with them; they too have ideas about how they want to be portrayed. One agenda for people who so far have agreed to be interviewed and photographed is that I should be able to produce images that will advertise their businesses on local social media. I think that is part of the compact with my ‘sitters.’  I too have an agenda which is about exploring what it is like to be working in a service industry on my high-street. Maybe I can say something about that.