The work of local authorities and the wider public sector is not always appreciated by the communities they serve, and many services only attract attention when something goes wrong.
The Covid epidemic, at least for a while, changed that as key workers became celebrated. Suddenly we were all clapping for carers, in awe of the professionalism of nurses, and grateful to the bin men who turned out to work when everyone else was in lockdown. Local directors of public health became media stars and we hung on their every word on local news and radios shows.
The ability of the political and executive leaderships of local authorities to draw together the public, private, education and voluntary sectors to try and resist the spread of the virus in their communities became critical, as was their ability to address the local social and economic impacts of the lockdowns.
I am sure many readers of The MJ were at the core of this response in their communities. I knew I would be at the centre of some of Newcastle's responses. As a keen amateur photographer, I also knew I would have more access than most to the city's issues, so in March 2020 I started taking my camera to work.
Over the following weeks I continued to photograph what I could of the city's response. Initially this was limited as I, like everyone else, spent most of my time on endless video calls trying to manage elements of the response from home. However, I was involved in some projects that required me to be on site, so I was able to photograph something of those first few weeks and the council's initial response.
Once the first lockdown was over, I was able to gain access to many of the city's public and voluntary organisations as they continued to deal with events – the ambulance service, GP surgeries, test labs, food banks, temples, and mosques all allowed me to have Covid-safe access to try and make a record this time. I even photographed council staff who volunteered to retrain to run the crematorium for the extra hours required – surely one of the most extreme redeployments ever.
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust also bought into the idea of a long-term photographic record of the city trying to deal with the epidemic. At first this was the non-Covid wards and services. As time went on, I was granted access to the Covid wards and the Covid intensive care unit.
I was nervous of entering the air-locked anti-room to don the PPE before entering the ICU ward. Allison, the senior nurse in charge of infection disease control, spotted this and offered to come in with me. There were two patients on ventilators the day I was there. They were surrounded by medical staff and various machines keeping them alive and monitoring them 24/7. Seeing the effects of Covid close-up was quite thing to witness.
In 2021 the vaccines arrived. I was privileged to be given access to various phases of the rollout. I particularly remember two brothers, David and John, who had been shielding and had not been out of their house for almost a year. They kindly let me photograph them as they booked into the vaccination centre, and I followed them through the vaccination process. There is a photograph of them in the book proudly holding up their vaccination certificate at the end. Hope had arrived.
Originally, I was thinking I would just deposit some of the prints with the Tyne & Wear Archive & Museums and someone, probably in about 50 years' time, might find them interesting. However, as the collection of images grew, the idea of a book was raised.
Covid in Newcastle: A Photographic Record has now been published and includes insight from Dr Eugene Milne, Newcastle's director of public health, as well forewords from the former chief executive of Newcastle City Council Pat Ritchie and Dame Jackie Daniel, the chief executive of Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Although the photographs are of Newcastle, I know similar responses were going on across the country and I hope people from other places across the UK will find it interesting and see how local authorities, local organisations, and local communities across the country came together to face the pandemic.
My royalties from the book's sales will be donated to Newcastle Hospitals Charity and a proportion of the publisher's income will be donated to Newcastle's West End Food Bank. I would like to thank Ryder Architecture for sponsoring an extended print run of the book. Their donation will also be gifted to charity.
My huge thanks go to all those that agreed to be photographed – especially those patients on the Covid ward who, despite not being at their best, gave written permission to be photographed.
Tom Warburton is a former director at Newcastle City Council
Covid in Newcastle: A Photographic Record can be purchased from Newcastle's Central Library or at www.tynebridgepublishing.org.uk. It is also available from Waterstones online and in its Newcastle shop. Images can be viewed at www.tom-warburton.com or www.instagram.com/tomwarbie
