Yang Tao, who helped fight the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province, poses with her cellphone showing a photo of her working in hospitals in the city. Volunteer photographers took a photo of each of the 42,000-plus medical workers from around the country who came to the aid of the hard-hit province. (Photo source: CHINA DAILY/LI GE)
Some of the medical workers had just returned to the hotel from work and were very tired, which was reflected in their photos, he said.
"Young medical workers on the team are used to using filters or Photoshop with their selfies, yet the portraits taken by these professional photographers recorded how we really looked and felt at the moment," he said. "The good and bad sides are all there and I think all of us will cherish the photos."
Li said that the power of photography lies in its faithfulness to what was occurring, and "all of us are very proud that we could be part of the team to record the heroes fighting the pandemic".
The photos have already been widely used by media outlets across the country as well as being projected in major cities to commemorate the heroism of the medical workers, according to Li.
There have also been discussions about holding exhibitions, compiling photo albums, creating museum collections or setting up a special memorial hall for the photos, he said.
Along with taking the pictures, the photographers also recorded short videos of the medical workers talking about one thing they wanted to do most when they returned home.
Chen Xiaoyan, a nurse at Shaoxing Central Hospital in Zhejiang province, said she wanted to bring her family back to Wuhan to see the bustling streets.
Xie Xiaona, a nurse at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University in Jiangxi province, said she wanted to see her child, who had just learned how to walk.
Huang Zian, from the First People's Hospital of Yongkang in Zhejiang province, said he had spent all the past five Spring Festivals at the hospital and he really wanted to come home and be with his family.
Li said they did not ignore the local medical staff who had been working at the front line from the very first. Around 150,000 medical workers in Wuhan and more than 500,000 in Hubei have been engaged in the fight against COVID-19, but it was impossible to take photos of all of them during the epidemic as the group is too big.
"We encourage more photography enthusiasts to come to Hubei to take photos of them after the outbreak," he said.
