What Photography Has to Do With COVID-19 Will Surprise You
Avigan a possible cure to the coronavirus is made by FujiFilm
An unlikely pair, photography, and covid-19, yet nothing surprises me anymore this year. But as a photographer, this information brings me back to the glory days of photography. The memories of using film, loading it into a camera, the discipline it taught me, to wait for that moment as every shot is well-planned and the trip inside the darkroom to process the film and print photographs. It all brings me back to a time, not so long ago,when the world as we know today, is a different world.
Necessity is the mother of invention — Unknown
FujiFilm is a pharmaceutical firm
To photographers, FujiFilm or Fuji remains one of the major brands of film available to photographers around the world. Before digital photography took over and slowly ended a century of film photography as a business. Because to a photographer like myself, I will never say that film photography died, only the business did. Film photography is thriving with more people discovering the joy of film photography as an art.
The business of film photography helped Fuji transition into other businesses. The photography technology is a world of precise chemistry, according to Fuji Ceo Shigetaka Komori, in his book, Innovating Out of Crisis: How Fujifilm Survived (and Thrived) as Its Core Business was Vanishing.
Where Kodak failed, Fuji succeeded. It didn’t wait until digital photography completely drained its resources like Kodak who later had to file for bankruptcy. But, don’t count Kodak out yet, as the fallen giant of photography has been brought back to life as a pharmaceutical company. Fuji used all its technology to diversify into businesses one may find unrelated, like cosmetics.
Fuji has one of Japan’s best selling cosmetic line with anti-aging properties. Astalift products contain an antioxidant called astaxanthin. Again the key to Fujifilm’s skincare products is their photographic film technologies.
For example, the company realized that film and cosmetics had synergies — similar to skin, film contains collagen.- Harvard Open Forum Project
Anti-influenza drug Avigan® Tablet Meets Primary Endpoint in Phase III Clinical Trial in Japan for COVID-19 patients
Avigan Tablet was approved for manufacture and sale in Japan in 2014 as an influenza antiviral drug. The Fujifilm Group will work to deliver the treatment drug to COVID-19 patients as soon as possible and contribute to ending the spread of COVID-19.
The Japanese government has already stockpiled Avigan in preparation for the outbreak of the novel influenza. — FujiFilm Newsroom
The news about Avigan brings hope, in the same way as other drugs that are being repurposed to be a cure against COVID-19. These medicines are relatively affordable. Fujifilm Holdings Corp.’s flu drug Avigan runs to $1.45 per day. Its affordability is especially reassuring as the pandemic affects both the rich and the poorest people around the world. A covid-19 cure that is cheap, safe, and effective can help put this pandemic to an end.
The race to finding a cure for the coronavirus is real. The global pandemic continues to affect us all, no one is spared. No one is safe, six months in, and we are still learning new things about the coronavirus.
The cost to our health goes beyond the physical and it is affecting our mental health. Everyone is waiting for a cure in form of a treatment or a breakthrough vaccine. The best we can hope is by 2021 a vaccine can help protect us from the virus.
While waiting for a vaccine to be ready, deaths continue to rise. Our best defense against covid-19 is to follow the rules, to wash your hands as often as you can, to wear a mask, and by keeping your distance.
Government imposed lockdown has caused economies around the world into recession, and more people are already losing their jobs and it will continue as long as we don’t find a cure.
What photography has to do with covid-19 is a surprise more so to a photographer like me, but I can see how photography plays a big part in the way we cope with living in a pandemic. Photography is the medium of love, in photography, we can stay connected with our family and friends.
“What words cannot express, photographs can.” — Excerpt from Self-Portrait in time of Covid-19
The way photography plays a part albeit small in the discovery of a possible cure, Photography becomes a medium of hope.
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