After their widely publicized portraits of Italian doctors and nurses battling the coronavirus pandemic, Rome chief photo editor Domenico Stinellis and Milan photographers Antonio Calanni and Luca Bruno wanted to go deeper. They set out to capture with more context and detail what a day was like for health care workers putting themselves at risk to save lives in the deadliest outbreak in Europe.
Using contacts cultivated over almost two months covering the pandemic, the AP photographers found a doctor and two nurses in northern Italy who agreed to not only let them into their workplaces, but their homes.
Nurse Pasqualina Conte walks in the emergency COVID-19 ward at the San Carlo Hospital in Milan, April 16, 2020.
AP Photo / Antonio Calanni
Nurse Pasqualina Conte has dinner with her son Andrea at their home in Milan, April 16, 2020. Every evening, when Pasqualina Conte returns home from a draining day as a nurse in a Milan emergency room for coronavirus patients, she longs to hold her 9-year-old son, Andrea. But for 50 days and counting, the two have not hugged.
AP Photo / Antonio Calanni
Nurse Cristina Settembrese fixes two masks to her face during her work shift in the COVID-19 ward at the San Paolo hospital in Milan, Italy, April 10, 2020. Settembrese spends her days caring for COVID-19 patients in a hospital ward, and when she goes home, her personal isolation begins by her own choice.
AP Photo / Luca Bruno
Nurse Cristina Settembrese talks to her daughter Rebecca in Basiglio, Italy, before starting for her work shift at the San Paolo hospital in Milan, April 10, 2020.
AP Photo / Luxca Bruno
Doctor Giovanni Passeri, right facing the camera, and his assistant Mariaconcetta Terracina, left facing the camera, take over from their colleagues during a shift change in one of the COVID-19 wards of the Ospedale Maggiore hospital in Parma, northern Italy, April 8, 2020.
AP Photo / Domenico Stinellis
Doctor Giovanni Passeri, right, works on his computer in his apartment in Parma, northern Italy, April 8, 2020, as his wife Valeria keeps a safe distance while using her phone. Since the coronavirus pandemic started, the 56-year-old University of Parma internal medicine associate professor works every day, well over the shifts of up to 12 hours he does in the COVID-19 section of Parma's Maggiore Hospital.
AP Photo / Domenico Stinellis
The result was a series of intimate portrayals of medical professionals, showing their efforts, sometimes fruitless, to help patients survive the virus, and the sacrifices they must make to avoid bringing it home to their families. The photos were elegantly captured in words by Rome correspondent Frances D'Emilio in a touching three-part series.
Bruno’s photo essay was printed in newspapers as far away as The Columbus Dispatch, while in his hometown Milan the newspaper Corriere della Sera used both his photos and video – and requested a separate interview with Bruno.
Calanni’s photos also made an impact both far and wide. The Washington Post posted the photo essay in its health section while Italian public broadcaster RAI ran a slide show of his photos with an Italian translation of the text.
Stinellis’ photos appeared in newspapers from The Guardian to Argentina's Clarin and the Arab times. Stinellis also received feedback on a personal level when he was contacted by the daughter of a COVID-19 patient seen in one of his photos. The man had died a few days later. The daughter was deeply moved by the photo and thanked Stinellis for taking it – she hadn't seen her father since he was admitted to the hospital.