Backstory:
"he got the perfect shot. He’d captured the anxious eyes of Dr. Zbigniew Religa tracking the vital signs of a heart-transplant patient. “I never let him out of my sight, never turned my back on him,” he says. “This was the payoff.”
It was 1987, in an outmoded operating room in post-Soviet Poland. Stanfield was looking for an image that would portray the critical state of the country’s free health-care system—and that’s exactly what he got.
His lens not only focuses on a dedicated surgeon’s eyes, but also on a patient hooked up to technologically outdated equipment. Stanfield also includes a weary staff member (far right) sleeping after assisting Religa with two transplants during an all-night session. “Each of these elements,” says Stanfield, “gives dimension and drama to the photograph, while helping tell a story.
“In this day and age you need more than a pretty photograph, you need information,” he adds.
But before a photographer can get that kind of information, they need to put in a lot of time. Stanfield studied Religa carefully, established a bond of trust, and then assumed a quiet presence in the surgeon’s surroundings.
“My skill probably lies in my ability to enter into the flow of people’s lives,” he says."