The identity of the caregiver is complex. It is both an object of fantasy for the layman and the anonymous individual drowned in the mass of uniforms.
Through his technical gestures, he is his profession. By his attentions, he is the caregiver we remember.
The idea of helping the sick outside the family circle appeared in the 6th century. First a work of charity and benevolence, the care establishments were transformed according to the progress of science and medicine to become during the XIXth century medical care establishments, ancestors of our current hospitals. Often discreet and silent but always working with their faces uncovered, individuals watched and watched over “the other”. Becoming a caregiver is a choice that we often make young, at an age when life shows us all its faces, ugly and beautiful, those who hurt and those who make happy, those who kill and those who save.
In this year 2020, the covid-19 makes the world waver. Its virulence brought those who were not looking for light out of the shadows. It made them heroes that we tirelessly applaud each evening, happy to be able to say “THANK YOU” and surprised, perhaps, to discover them.
It is to them that this photographic work is aimed to give them (re) the choice of what they want to be: heroes, caregivers or anonymous.
May their reflections without mask and their identities be able to resound in silence when the hands have stopped clapping.
Christophe Meireis
