A Dumbarton photographer is one of just four in Scotland to take part in a project celebrating the role of healthcare workers during the pandemic.
Gordon Russell, who lived in the town for 30 years before moving to Clynder in Argyll and Bute, is preparing to photograph local healthcare heroes - as part of the nationwide 2020 Vision project exploring the stories behind the PPE.
And he told the Lennox that he was humbled to be involved.
Gordon said: “I was contacted by a photographer down south who had seen some of my work and decided that I’d be perfect for this project.
“It’s limited to just 100 photographers throughout the country and he thought I’d be good to have on board.
“So I contacted the people who ran the project, one thing led to another and that’s how I ended up involved.
“It’s fantastic, it’s a great honour.
“It’s a once in a lifetime for us. Although it’s not a great experience, people will hopefully view this in hundreds of years time and look back at what our great NHS workers fought against and what they had to fight against.
“You see workers in their PPE on TV, but you don’t see the emotions behind that.
“It’ll be nice to get them away for half-a-day from all that, let them relax out in a park or open space and just chat about what they’ve gone through.
“It’s good to show the people behind the masks.
“They are just ordinary people like you or I with families and normal lives.”
Gordon, who runs Angus and Amelia Photography, also revealed that he has been touched by some of the stories already told by healthcare workers.
He continued: “I’ve got a friend who is a photographer and an ICU nurse, and she said the nicest thing about wearing all the protective gear at work is that she can hug her colleagues - at a time where she can’t even hug her own daughter.
“I have another friend in Glasgow who is an anaesthetist and she hasn’t seen her family a lot.
“She’s working 13 hour shifts, six days a week. It’s a gruelling time.
“That’s the sort of thing that people are going through, so it’s nice to give something back.
“In the grand scheme of things what I’m doing is incomparable, but it’s so nice to do something to tell their
story.”
Gordon’s work will be displayed alongside others in a nationwide exhibition, whilst a book featuring the stories of those featured is also set to be published once the work is collated.
