Thelma Kaime, age 36, gets ready to suit up and go into an isolation ward for Ebola patients in Monrovia, Liberia. She says loves working there because she saves lives. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Thelma Kaime, age 36, gets ready to suit up and go into an isolation ward for Ebola patients in Monrovia, Liberia. She says loves working there because she saves lives.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime puts on rubber gloves as the first step. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime puts on rubber gloves as the first step.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next, Kaime puts on the pants of a Tyvek suit. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next, Kaime puts on the pants of a Tyvek suit.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next Kaime puts on rubber boots. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next Kaime puts on rubber boots.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime used to work at a hospital in a rural area of a country before taking a job as a health promoter at an NGO and then coming to work in an Ebola ward in Monrovia. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime used to work at a hospital in a rural area of a country before taking a job as a health promoter at an NGO and then coming to work in an Ebola ward in Monrovia.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime lives in Paynseville, an area of Monrovia that has many cases of Ebola. She worries for her children and tells them that they need to play alone right now. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime lives in Paynseville, an area of Monrovia that has many cases of Ebola. She worries for her children and tells them that they need to play alone right now.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime wears a face mask, goggles, and hair net. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime wears a face mask, goggles, and hair net.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
The hood of the suit goes up next. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
The hood of the suit goes up next.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime then puts on an additional, larger hood on top. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Kaime then puts on an additional, larger hood on top.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
As the final step, Kaime puts on an apron and an extra pair of gloves. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
As the final step, Kaime puts on an apron and an extra pair of gloves.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Mark Nyenti, a member of a burial team prepares to collect a body in New Kru Town, a suburb of Monrovia. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Mark Nyenti, a member of a burial team prepares to collect a body in New Kru Town, a suburb of Monrovia.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Nyenti puts on gloves and boots as a first step. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Nyenti puts on gloves and boots as a first step.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Then Nyenti puts on his mask. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Then Nyenti puts on his mask.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
A full-body Tyvek goes over Nyenti's scrubs. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
A full-body Tyvek goes over Nyenti's scrubs.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next he puts on a pair of goggles and an apron. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next he puts on a pair of goggles and an apron.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
The final step is a second pair of gloves. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
The final step is a second pair of gloves.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Sonnie Ville, a former office clerk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was out of work when all non-essential staff were sent home because of Ebola. She took a job at MSF as a health promoter. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Sonnie Ville, a former office clerk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was out of work when all non-essential staff were sent home because of Ebola. She took a job at MSF as a health promoter.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Ville has been engaged for a year now, and says she will get married "after Ebola." As the first step to get ready to go talk to patients in an Ebola ward, Ville puts on rubber gloves. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Ville has been engaged for a year now, and says she will get married "after Ebola." As the first step to get ready to go talk to patients in an Ebola ward, Ville puts on rubber gloves.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next, Ville puts on a giant Tyvek suit. For three weeks, Ville lied to her mother, keeping her new job a secret. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Next, Ville puts on a giant Tyvek suit. For three weeks, Ville lied to her mother, keeping her new job a secret.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Ville, who is 34 and has two children named Thomas and Solomon, worries about Ebola but does her work anyway. Here, she puts on a face mask. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Ville, who is 34 and has two children named Thomas and Solomon, worries about Ebola but does her work anyway. Here, she puts on a face mask.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Ville explains how the disease works to patients and their family members, but most are too stressed to listen carefully. "You take it step by step and explain to them." Over her face mask and suit, Ville wears a giant white hood with cut outs for the eyes. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Ville explains how the disease works to patients and their family members, but most are too stressed to listen carefully. "You take it step by step and explain to them." Over her face mask and suit, Ville wears a giant white hood with cut outs for the eyes.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
The first day, Ville nearly quit. "I was so afraid," she says. "But I encouraged myself that I can make it." The next step is putting on a rubber apron. Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
The first day, Ville nearly quit. "I was so afraid," she says. "But I encouraged myself that I can make it." The next step is putting on a rubber apron.
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Finally, Ville puts on goggles and another pair of rubber gloves. Many elements of her outfit are secured with duct tape for an extra seal. "My people are dying, and if I go back home, more people will die." Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Finally, Ville puts on goggles and another pair of rubber gloves. Many elements of her outfit are secured with duct tape for an extra seal. "My people are dying, and if I go back home, more people will die."
Glenna Gordon/Wall Street Journal
Glenna Gordon‘s revealing portraits of African healthcare workers suiting up to combat Ebola are more than instructional. They are touching. By showing us the brave men and women beneath all that protective gear, she’s humanized the people risking their lives under trying conditions so others might live.
The photos, taken in Liberia and Sierra Leone, show the laborious process of donning the suits that must be worn while tending to the sick, the dying and the dead. Seeing volunteers add one layer of protection after another until only their eyes are visible underscores the risk they are taking. And by starting each series with a portrait of the person wearing only hospital scrubs, Gordon literally puts a face to the bravery.
“I think sometimes we become desensitized to stories like this,” the photographer says. “If you’ve seen one person in a hazmat suit, it’s like you’ve you seen 10. I wanted to make sure we remembered these are normal people who are volunteering to help. No one is being forced to go.”
Gordon spent September and early October in western Africa for the The Wall Street Journal. Her main assignment was photographing clinics and following burial teams, but it wasn’t long before she started shooting these portraits. Each photo in her series documents a step in the suiting up process. Workers start with gloves, then don Tyvek suits, boots, masks, eye protection, aprons, and another pair of gloves.
According to the World Health Organization, there have been 13,703 cases of Ebola and 4,920 deaths worldwide. Sierra Leone and Liberia have been hit hardest. Those fighting the epidemic have not been spared; the WHO reports 521 healthcare workers have been infected and 272 have died. Gordon said many of the people she photographed spoke honestly about their fear of contracting the disease. Sonnie Ville, a 34-year-old former office clerk with two children, says she almost quit after the first day. She waited three weeks before telling her mother she was working around Ebola.
“I was so afraid,” Ville told Gordon. “But I encouraged myself that I can make it. My people are dying, and if I go back home, more people will die.”
It was scary for Gordon too. She never went into containment areas and stayed out of houses where people were sick so she didn’t have to wear full protection. But the assignment still required the utmost caution. Every time she got out of the car she wore rubber boots and when she was out making pictures she never touched anything. And she was forever washing her hands and gear.
It was hard being afraid, she says, but it was even worse being unable to interact closely with people; caution required documenting things from a safe distance. She’s spent years working in Africa and says her photography has focused on telling personal stories. This time, she says, she felt completely removed and dehumanized.
“The things I love most about being a photographer are things like greeting people and ingratiating myself,” she says. “I never want to stand six feet away and scream questions at people.”
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