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Dr Cyrus McEachern has been creating portraits of his anesthesiology colleagues, a project that has made him feel closer to them and taught him that no one is alone in their fears and anxieties in the pandemic.

He’s an anesthesiologist at Vancouver General Hospital, thrust into the daily struggle to save people from COVID-19.

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The photographic images are “a bit of beauty to come out of a really, ugly nasty time in the hospital right now,” he said. “I’ve learned so much about everyone.”

He has also learned something valuable about the worries and anxiety he had been dealing with as a relatively new anesthesiologist. “I have only been in practice for two years now. And the stresses I was feeling, I am not alone in it at all.”

He blends pictures of colleagues on the COVID-19 front line with pictures of their life outside work — the family members, hobbies and interests that also define these doctors — especially things they can’t enjoy now in a period of pandemic lockdown.

“We have to wear many layers of personal protective equipment,” said McEachern. “It’s physically uncomfortable and it’s also kind of dehumanizing. Like we don’t recognize each other, so you feel more isolated.”

His initial goal was to artistically explore how workplace stress affects personal lives.