Hours from the nearest city, in a clearing in the Liberian jungle, a small army of doctors, nurses, sprayers and gravediggers is battling the Ebola virus at a clinic run by an American medical charity. Weeks of sustained, hard-hitting coverage by the photographer Daniel Berehulak chronicled in detail the urgent, grim and unrelenting work. But after more than two months, how could he find a new way to tell the story?
David Furst was wondering exactly that a few weeks ago, too.
Braving Ebola
The men and women of one Ebola clinic in rural Liberia reflect on life inside the gates.
“I wondered what was possible,” said Mr. Furst, The New York Times’s international picture editor. “You want people to understand and to care. There is only so much people can take. The pictures Daniel put out were heart-wrenching, with this great synergy of beautiful composition, exquisite photography and this terrible content. It tears you apart.”
Mr. Furst’s “aha” moment came randomly one night, when he spotted a poster-size ad that showed two people, one in profile. The directness of the image caught his eye and his imagination. Perhaps readers could encounter the people inside the Liberian clinic one-on-one, in a style where the viewer’s gaze fell directly on the subject, from doctors to survivors. When he proposed it to Mr. Berehulak, the photographer quickly agreed.
The result is “Braving Ebola,” in which a cross-section of the many souls whose lives have been touched by the disease — whether as medical professionals, support staff or patients and family — tell their stories. The images — studio portraits against a white background — have a certain power, conveying by turns faith, determination, exhaustion and, yes, joy.
“Having people open up and be honest with me with feelings and emotions was a huge privilege,” Mr. Berehulak said. “I hope I was able to capture some of the anguish, some of the hope, some of the struggles that all these people were going through.”
Although he and his editor had quickly agreed on the approach, it took more time to sort out the logistics of building a studio in the middle of the jungle. “Portrait projects of this scale tend to be conceived ahead of time with assistants, lighting technicians, lights, backgrounds and people to help you corral subjects,” Mr. Furst said. “We had none of that.”
Mr. Berehulak found an empty office he could turn into a makeshift studio. Lights were bought at a hardware store in Monrovia, a five-hour drive away. For a seamless background that would allow him to make full-length portraits, he returned to Monrovia and bought “the biggest white sheets in all of Liberia,” which he then taped together.
Some workmen from the clinic helped him set up the studio, where lights were hung from the rafters and on stands, and scraps of timber stretched out the sheets. After some tests, Mr. Berehulak discovered that even more lights were needed, so another run was made to Monrovia.
Not much cajoling was needed to get people to pose. They were eager — and proud — to tell their stories, and it showed in their faces. Mr. Berehulak also interviewed them, and they were able to recount moments big and small of their recent experiences.
“I think they were very, very proud of the job they were doing, and everyone seemed to think there was a national responsibility to fight Ebola,” Mr. Berehulak said. “Doing what they could to fight Ebola and get it out of Liberia.”
The project was challenging on many levels, not least of which was that he carried it out while still photographing the continuing stories at the clinic for the daily newspaper. And while he took every precaution to protect himself, Mr. Berehulak was sometimes beset by stress and depression.
Yet he also found the project life-affirming, and life-changing.
“There are incredible, brave people doing incredibly brave things every day,” he said. “There are certain jobs that people deem to be more important than others. But at the Ebola treatment unit, whether the person was a waste handler, doctor or nurse, the role everyone played was as important as each other. Everyone played a crucial and vital role.”
To view the “Braving Ebola” interactive, click here.
James Estrin contributed reporting.
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