Doctors of the World seals an agreement with the creators of Covid Photo Diaries to document the effects of COVID-19 in Spain.
Doctors of the World joins the photojournalists of the Covid Photo Diaries project to promote this initiative that documents, from different points of view, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain on people’s lives.
Doctors of the World, the humanitarian NGO that organizes the Luis Valtueña International Humanitarian Photography Award, specializes, among other things, in health emergencies. In Spain, it is operational in 14 of the 17 autonomous communities, and in view of the situation generated by the new coronavirus, it is acting on several fronts.
All of this fits in with the also decentralized vision of the authors of Covid Photo Diaries, who carry out their coverage from different areas of the country, ranging from urban to rural in Madrid, Catalonia, Aragon, Asturias and Andalusia. Little by little they are building a visual story that will be a reference of this stage that is already modifying our lives.
“We saw clearly the alliance from the beginning. We are a health organization and a large part of our volunteers are medical and nursing staff, who are now involved in the emergency in our own country. In addition, we have always been involved in photography. In fact, several of the photographers who promote Covid Photo Diaries have been winners and finalists of our Luis Valtueña Award,” says Elena Urdaneta, Director General of Doctors of the World.
What is life in confinement like? What is this new everyday life made of? We discover it every day through the eyes of the photographers: Anna Surinyach, Isabel Permuy, Susana Girón, Judith Prat, José Colón, Manu Brabo, Javier Fergo and Olmo Calvo.
Since March 17, 2020, they have been publishing a daily selection of the photographs captured in their homes, in their neighborhoods, in their cities or wherever there is a story to be told, in the form of a logbook, in their Instagram account.
“Our project was born with the aim of being an interactive map of one of the most important events we have experienced in recent decades. To the unquestionable relevance of documenting the day-to-day of this health alert and its consequences for the population, one must add the enormous value that this visual, plural and extensive testimony will have when everything is over. It will be the memory of what happened to us these days”, explains the photographic collective.
Furthermore, from April 20, the images of the project will also find temporary accommodation on this website, along with videos and testimonies of their authors. Later, all the contents will be put on a website of their own, which the Covid Photo Diaries team will produce together with Doctors of the World.
This is a complicated time for freelance photojournalists, who have suddenly stopped receiving commissions and income. The paradox is that their work is now more necessary than ever. That is why Doctors of the World is contributing to this documentary initiative with financial, logistical and preventive resources.
For further information please contact: premioluisvaltuena@medicosdelmundo.org
coronavirusinstagramproject@gmail.com
Photo: © José Colón / Covid Photo Diaries
