Jill Velinos hopes her portrait titled ‘Rose Unmasked’ brings recognition to the nurses who have spent the last three years wearing masks while working through the pandemic.
The image of a nurse named Rose, taken by the Werribee resident, has been selected as a finalist in the portrait category for the Australian Photography awards 2022.
“I’m a nurse by trade and I took some time off to have my children and then I didn’t work through the pandemic but towards the end I had the urge to go back,” she said.
“There were so many changes going on and I wanted to start making portraits of the staff I worked with, to get to know who they are as people without all their masks and PPE on.
“I just really wanted to humanise them, all the essential workers were seen as a collective but every single person that worked throughout the pandemic had a family waiting for them at home.”
Using only natural light to take the photo, Ms Velinos said she believes the image really reflects the nurse’s exhaustion.
“She just looks really tired and I think that really encapsulates it, she’s the face of so many other people that we never see, she’s almost like face of essential workers,” she said.
Ms Velinos said she felt “chuffed” upon finding out her work had been recognised, and is “very proud” of her image.
“Just being there for me [as a finalist], I feel over the moon,” she said.
“It’s not about me, it’s about all my colleagues that I work with.”
Details: photocollective.com.au/australian-photography-awards/
