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Photojournalist Leah Hennel's new book shows pain, perseverance of Calgarians during COVID-19

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In her new book, Alone Together, photojournalist Leah Hennel chronicles the final days of a Calgarian named Chuck Dover, who died just over a year ago of COVID-19.

Through a series of black-and-white photographs, Hennel documented this short journey at the Peter Lougheed Centre.

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We see the 76-year-old being comforted by registered nurse Anne Garcia. We see him receiving supplemental oxygen. We see Garcia holding up a phone so Chuck’s wife, Dixie, could FaceTime with him. We see Dixie donning personal protective equipment so she could visit her husband, who was intubated by then. We see Dixie holding Chuck’s hand. We see a quote from Dixie about the doctor telling her that a very aggressive infection was attacking her husband’s lungs and “there’s no coming back from this one.” Finally, we see a picture of Dixie in her home holding up an urn containing Chuck’s remains.

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Hennel is a staff photographer for Alberta Health Services who took the job in 2019 after an award-winning career in photojournalism with Postmedia.

She met Chuck at the hospital in the COVID unit before he had to be transferred to Intensive Care. She told him what she was doing and why she felt it was important to document patients’ experiences with COVID. He consented to have his photo taken and then told Hennel about his granddaughter. He showed her a picture the girl had drawn for him. Shortly after that, he was moved to the ICU.

“That was my last conversation with Chuck,” says Hennel. “I spent maybe an hour with him and then he was intubated. Then I met his wife. She would come every day for an hour to visit her husband in ICU. He was in there for quite a long time and it didn’t go well in the end. But I got close to them.”

Chuck and Dixie’s story is only one of many Hennel tells through hundreds of powerful and haunting photographs in the book, which brings viewers into Calgary’s hospitals for an intimate look at the century’s most devastating health crisis. But this particular story holds a special place in her heart.

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“He reminded me of my dad,” she says. “I thought ‘This could be my dad.’ This could happen to any of us.”

Hennel says the photos ended up being a close collaboration with caregivers and other hospital staff, family members and patients. Decked out in personal protective equipment, she would usually work with only one camera and one lens and fade into the background. Still, while she did her best to be unobtrusive, she says it felt like the families were giving her a “gift” by allowing her access at all, particularly since they were often doing so on some of their most emotional and difficult days.

As a longtime photojournalist working for a daily paper, this was not completely unfamiliar territory for Hennel. Over the years, she earned a reputation and numerous National Newspaper Award nominations for both feature photography and dramatic shots of spot news as it unfolded. So when the pandemic hit less than a year after she took the job with the Alberta Health Services, her instincts quickly kicked in.

“Initially, when it started, I had no idea of the scope or how long it would go for,” she says. “I’m a photojournalist and this was historic, a worldwide pandemic. Given that I did have access, working at Alberta Health Services, into the hospitals, I just knew right away I needed to be there documenting what the frontline health-care staff were doing and also documenting people and patients who were affected. Going in, I didn’t set out to (make a book) or anything. I just knew through my training and background as a photojournalist that it was my job to document real-life stories that were happening right in front of me.”

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Certainly many of the photos in Alone Together have an appropriate sense of gravitas, the distinct feel of history unfolding. Hennel opted for black and white because she felt the brightly coloured personal protective equipment would be distracting. She wanted the viewer to focus on what was happening in the photo. One of the books’ most powerful images may already be familiar to readers. It made the rounds on social media in 2020. It’s of intensive-care physician Dr. Simon Demers-Marcil on his knees with his head in his hands while on the phone, with Hennel capturing the moment he told a family that a loved one had just died of COVID-19. Hennel also chronicles the dramatic story of Winnifred (Freddie) Walker, a six-year-old Calgarian diagnosed with multi-system inflammatory syndrome, which was believed to be linked to COVID-19. While Freddie would eventually recover, there are multiple pictures of the little girl in the hospital, including a particularly poignant image of her masked mother squeezed onto the hospital bed gently combing the hair of her daughter, who stares off into the distance clutching a teddy bear.

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Rana Omar hands out bags filled with treats to children during the drive-by Eid celebrations at Al-Salam Centre in Calgary. From Leah Hennel’s book, Alone Together. Photo by Leah Hennel.
Rana Omar hands out bags filled with treats to children during the drive-by Eid celebrations at Al-Salam Centre in Calgary. From Leah Hennel’s book, Alone Together. Photo by Leah Hennel. Photo by Leah Hennel /Leah Hennel

While the hospital shots are engrossing, Hennel also wanted to offer glimpses of the outside world during the pandemic. Some of them are equally haunting, whether it be looking down on an abandoned downtown Calgary or shots of an empty playground cordoned off by tape. But she also shows more joyful moments. There are photos outside the Al-Salam Centre of drive-by Eid celebrations, a Muslim holiday that marks the end of month-long fasting. There are pictures of the drive-through Ash Wednesday ceremonies at Grace Presbyterian Church in February 2021, where the ashes were put by cotton swabs on parishioners’ hands rather than the forehead. There is a picture of Tim Shantz, artistic director of the Juno-nominated choir Luminous Voices, conducting in the parking lot of the Max Bell Arena where all the singers are performing from their cars. There are shots of jubilant Mount Royal University students poking out of the sunroof or hanging out the windows of their cars during their drive-in graduation ceremony. The final photo – which is also the only one in colour – is of Calgary senior Louise Smyth blowing out a candle on a cupcake while celebrating her 98th birthday on FaceTime.

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“In the hospitals, especially, I was going into someone’s worst moment – literally the worst day for the family,” Hennel says. “I guess I wanted to show that there was also hope as well. I hate using the word resilient, because it’s been overused for the past two and some years. So I like saying that people had to adapt. They had no choice.”

Dr. Simon Demers-Marcil tells a family that their loved one has died of COVID-19. From Leah Hennel’s book, Alone Together. Photo by Leah Hennel.
Dr. Simon Demers-Marcil tells a family that their loved one has died of COVID-19. From Leah Hennel’s book, Alone Together. Photo by Leah Hennel. jpg

While Hennel’s career has certainly had her photographing some dramatic and even tragic events, the sheer length of the pandemic, and the fact that she was personally impacted alongside everyone else in the world, took their toll. She was constantly worried about bringing COVID home to her husband and teenage son. In the early days, she had a ritual upon arriving home. She would go to her detached garage, where she would disrobe and put on a housecoat her husband had left out for her and sprint to the house, where she would shower in the basement before greeting her family.

“I always wondered what my neighbours thought,” she says with a laugh.  

Warning tape cordons off a Calgary playground during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. From photojournalist Leah Hennel’s new book, Alone Together. Photo by Leah Hennel
Warning tape cordons off a Calgary playground during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. From photojournalist Leah Hennel’s new book, Alone Together. Photo by Leah Hennel jpg

Hennel says she is still processing the experience of documenting the pandemic and suspects she will be for some time.

“It’s such a cliche to say that we have a camera up to our face so we’re shielded from what we’re seeing,” she says. “I think it will affect me years from now. I’ll think back about what I saw and what I experienced. At the time, I just knew I had a job to do.”

Alone Together is out on March 29.

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