AP’s chief photographer for Iberia, Emilio Morenatti, produced a powerful set of images that captures the grim but essential work of mortuary workers collecting the bodies of COVID-19 victims from hospitals, nursing homes and private residences in Spain.
Since the pandemic began in the spring, Morenatti has recorded the impact of the coronavirus on Spain with moving and sometimes jarring photo packages from spaces not often open to journalists: hospitals, funeral parlors and even private homes. While the images may shock, Morenatti consistently documents his subjects with sensitivity and respect. His latest package is no exception.
As a nursing home resident sleeps at left, funeral home workers remove the body of an elderly person who died in his bed of COVID-19, in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020. Like doctors and nurses, mortuary workers are part of a group of essential workers who see and touch the daily toll of death amid the worst public health crisis in more than a century.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
A person sleeps in a bed at left, a few feet away from a body sealed in bags on the floor of a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 19, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Wearing protective suits to prevent infection, mortuary workers move the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 from an elevator after removing it from a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
The body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 is covered with a sheet on a bed in a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Mortuary workers transfer the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 after removing it from a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
A mortuary worker transports the body of a COVID-19 victim on a stretcher at the morgue of a hospital in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Mortuary worker Marina Gómez handles the body of a person who died of COVID-19 at Mémora morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 16, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Mortuary workers Marina Gómez and Manel Rivera store the body of a person who died of COVID-19 at Mémora morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Relatives of a person who died of COVID-19 gather during a funeral at Mémora mortuary in Girona, Spain, Nov. 19, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
A mortuary worker closes a coffin with the body of a COVID-19 victim at Mémora morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
A mortuary worker collects the ashes of a COVID-19 victim from an oven after the remains where cremated at Mémora mortuary in Girona, Spain, Nov. 19, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Before cremation, a mortuary worker prepares a coffin carrying the body of a COVID-19 victim, for a funeral at Mémora mortuary in Girona, Spain, Nov. 19, 2020.
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
After weeks of trying, Morenatti managed to embed with the Barcelona mortuary workers. His photos, accompanied by colleague Joe Wilson’s text, revealed the important work done by people in a profession that rarely makes headlines, and also captured the emotional toll on the workers. One image from a nursing home showed workers in protective suits removing the body of an elderly COVID victim as another resident slept in an adjacent bed.
The images played widely, including the front-page of Spain’s leading daily, El Pais, and made The Guardian’s “20 Photographs of the Week.”