Pike Place Market

Washington state was the nation’s first coronavirus hotspot, recording America’s first COVID-19 death, on February 29th. The Seattle area was also a pioneer in social distancing, becoming the first major metropolitan area to close schools and businesses to slow the spread of disease.

Photographer Grant Hindsley took to the streets of Seattle for Rolling Stone on the weekend of March 28th to survey the city and document the lives of some of its frontline health care workers.

Pike Place is Seattle’s iconic fish and farmer’s market, frequented by tourists and locals alike. Hindsley says the crowds at the market took weeks to die down, but by the end of March the landmark was empty. “That’s one of the only places in Seattle that is reminiscent of New York City, where it’s hard to move your body around other people,” he says. “It is a very novice mistake as a new Seattleite to try and drive your car past the market. But you can freely do that now.” — Captions by Tim Dickinson

The Cherry Blossoms of UDub

On the quad of the University of Washington campus, the cherry blossoms draw huge crowds in the spring. ”It’s usually insanity there, just packed with people,” says Hindsley. “When I was at a daily publication, it was an annual thing to go photograph the cherry blossoms and the tourists.” As the virus hit, the trees — and this rite of spring — were roped off. 

Capitol Hill Street Art

Near downtown in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, one of Seattle’s hippest, storefronts have been boarded up to prevent looting during the pandemic. “It’s a big moment for street artists and muralists,” says Hindsley, “because there’s so much free real estate” to paint on. “It’s adding positivity versus defacing something.”

An Essential Worker

Sandy, a street artist, paints a mural on the boarded up Capitol Coffee Works. Social distancing has also brought Seattle’s harshest economic divides into relief. Just out of this shot, a homeless person was camped out on the sidewalk. “It’s really stark,” Hindsley says. “With the streets empty of those who have the privilege of quarantining, the magnitude of Seattle’s homelessness crisis is in plain view.”

The Show Can’t Go On

In the heart of downtown, the Paramount is one of Seattle’s most famous theaters. When big acts come to town, Hindsley says, “if they’re not playing an arena, they’re playing there.” Shows by Carly Rae Jepsen, Kurt Vile and comedian Russell Brand have been canceled or postponed due to the pandemic.

Frontline Workers: Tracy Mullen

Hindsley also photographed and interviewed health care professionals who were taking breaks from treating COVID-19 patients at a pair of Seattle hospitals. Washington’s aggressive social distancing campaign has blunted the worst of the breakout. “The nurses are stressed out, but they’re not all working 18-hour shifts, and there’s not refrigerator trucks outside like we’re seeing in New York or Italy,” says Hindsley. “It’s a slow burn of dealing with an influx of patients.”

Tracy Mullen is a nurse at Harborview, a hospital downtown. “I’m doing OK,” she told Hindsley. “I walk to work in the mornings and that gives me a good 30 minutes to clear my head, get some fresh air and prepare myself for the day.” 

What stuck out to Hindsley from his conversations with nurses, is how much distance the disease itself creates. “A huge part of what they like to do is be empathetic — to be the human smiling face for patients that are in a bad time of their lives, to be that liaison between the patient, the medical system and their family. But with this, everybody is intubated or sedated and can’t see their family. And patients just sit there for weeks. They miss the human connection of helping family members and helping people connect.”

Frontline Workers: Eric Kim

Eric Kim is a nurse at Harborview “It is scary to come to work everyday, but I have to remain hopeful for the patients that come in,” he told Hindsley. “If there’s fear in my eyes the patients will be scared as well, so I try to smile.”

Frontline Workers: Gwen Angel

Gwen Angel is a Harborview nurse. For frontline professionals the crisis isn’t contained in the hospital. Nurses worry about their exposure to the virus. “I change my scrubs before I leave, and I walk into the house and I shower immediately,” Angel told Hindsley. Still, she worries: “Am I taking this home?” 

Nurses also have the same anxieties others are facing. “We give everyone a brave face, but we are concerned about our families, we are concerned about finances, we are concerned about the overall recovery. So in addition to having to work and face the virus firsthand, we also, with everyone else, are concerned about our futures.”

Frontline workers: Donna Bowen

Donna Bowen is an ICU nurse at the University of Washington Medical Center. The virus, she says, is striking people in the prime of life. “We are seeing patients in their 30s, 40s, 50s. Maybe they work at Boeing, maybe they work at Microsoft.” She says nurses are improvising virtual family visits, using patients’ iPhones. “A nurse will go into the room with all the PPE on, hold up the phone to the patient. The patient is not necessarily alert, but the family member on the other end can talk to them over Facetime, and they can at least see them. I’d like to think that’s comforting, but it’s emotional.” 

Frontline Workers: Gayle Wiley

Gayle Wiley is a critical care nurse practitioner at University of Washington Medical Center. She finds herself, like so many Americans, isolated from things that used to give meaning to her life outside of work. “I love music, I’m a Deadhead,” she told Hindsley. “It’s weird, since this started, I’m having a hard time listening to music. I miss going to concerts, and that’s one of the things that gives me joy. When I listen, it makes me miss it, and makes me sad.”

Frontline Workers: Megan DePaolo

Megan DePaolo is a nurse at University of Washington Medical Center. “We’re seeing the sickest of the sick right now,” DePaolo told Hindsley. “We are more removed from our patients than I’ve previously been.” Normally, she said, “that empathetic part of nursing is the best part of nursing. We’re the one at the bedside for 12 hours; you’re there with that patient; you’re there with that family.” With COVID-19, families can’t visit and many patients are sedated and on a ventilator. “You really have to reframe a win or an improvement,” she told Hindsley. “It’s difficult when someone can’t interact with you. It might be two or more weeks before we really start seeing people improve, if at all.”