Open Hearts

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 5 photos

Port Moresby General makes TV hospital dramas look like school plays. Leprosy patients, arrows through the torso, TB cases and a 'dead on arrival department' make for some real life drama.
As a volunteer with Australian medical charity 'Operation Open Heart' it was my job to document the daily events of 40+ aussie medicos working in Papua New Guinea performing life saving heart surgery.
In typical style Aussie volunteers went about the serious business of cardiac surgery with great humour. It's how they manage to cope with the life and death nature of the field in which they work. The nurses, doctors, patients and their families let me inside their world for one remarkable week of my life.
I am 44 years old and have recently moved away from a career as a copywriter and creative director in Advertising that took me from my hometown of Perth to Sydney, Johannesburg, London, New York, and Amsterdam. I'm now finding ways to use my skills to do some good on this planet. Last year my young family and I lived on the Wild Coast of South Africa doing volunteer work. My camera came in handy documenting various philanthropic efforts for local charities. I made a pact to continue doing what I could for worthy causes which led me to Papua New Guinea in July of 2011.
Having not been professionally trained in photography, I see the camera much like a pen. A tool to tell a story.