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Virgen del Rocío: Septiembre

Virgen del Rocío: Septiembre (2021) is a series based on my experiences working as a nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This month would mark the beginning of my work with the virus that has changed so many lives, and the true beginning of the trauma that forms the foundation of this series, itself an attempt to process and relieve myself of the experiences faced when I was thrust back into nursing. The story begins with me finding myself once again nominally unemployed and waiting by the phone for a call from the health services of the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital in Seville, Spain, the largest of the 3 public hospitals in the city.

The job bank, ‘La bolsa’ (a list of working professionals) was currently at its limit as more experienced nurses had already been hired for more essential services, or they had rejected contracts knowing what was waiting in the COVID wards. This left hospitals and health centers to fend for themselves and to seek personnel from the ‘listas adicionales’, people who were either not in la bolsa for whatever reason, in my case for ‘not presenting nationality papers’, which is code for being a non-EU immigrant.

When reviewing these images, months later at the end of my contract with the hospital, I can’t help but relive the feelings and fears and events that transpired during that first month of my hospital work with the virus, and the individuals who contracted it. Feelings of sorrowfor that person, myself, forced into those circumstances by an uncontrollable aligning of the universe, on a continent far from my home, from my past, from my extended family. Part of healing is having compassion and understanding for oneself. This is the beginning of that journey.

All images 2020. Limited edition books available upon request.