Gear

GEAR by Michael Padilla, is a body of work built out of personal experience during the worst parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The photographer and educator holds a degree in nursing in his adopted country, Spain. During the pandemic, nursing shortages led him to return to hospital work and from September 2020 to April 2021 he worked almost exclusively with patients suffering the effects of active COVID-19 infections in the infectious disease units and the ICU of his local hospital. The suffocating rubber suits, hoods, triple layer of gloves, foggy goggles and excessive quantities of alcohol disinfectant were the gear that he and his colleagues used to protect themselves from the invisible, yet clearly problematic virus for hours at a time during their frantic 12-hour shifts. With the worst of the pandemic clearly in the rearview mirror, little light has been shed on the effects felt at the homes of these healthcare professionals. In the time before vaccines the reticence to hug or kiss their children goodnight after a shift, the long hot showers required to wash off the feeling of working during a plague, the feeling of being constantly dirty, of being a bearer of disease. GEAR is a reflection on what witnessing horror brings home. A series of images made with personal protective gear worn during the pandemic worn by the artist’s young children, themselves victims of their fathers overzealous desire to protect them from the worst aspects of the pandemic.