Nurses working on the front line during the height of the Covid pandemic have been documented in a new book by a children’s hospital matron and keen photographer.

Hannah Deller, who completed her BTEC in photography at Barking and Dagenham College, is launching her first book showing the crisis in pictures recorded during the pandemic.

She realised the need to document what was happening when Covid-19 began to sweep the world, not just in the wards where she was responsible for young patients but also outside her hospital.

“I’ve never stopped taking pictures,” Hannah says. “Even through difficult, dark times, something amazing can take place like what happened to me during the pandemic.

“This all started at the college. I’ve been working on the book for a long time and now finally able to publish my photos.”

Her book, Working on the Frontline, is her remarkable record of events since the first lockdown in March 2020. 

It captures all aspects of the pandemic, from images of nurses including herself in full PPE to social distancing and closed off children’s playgrounds.

Hannah also shot creative ways families found to keep in contact and the Thursday night public clapping in the streets for the NHS and emergency services.

Her book highlights events around the world at that time, as well as key issues facing the government and the NHS in the period following the pandemic.

The 192-page hardback features 150 snapshots and posed images and is being published by Image and Reality at £30 following a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.

Hannah started her nursing career in 2011 and is currently training to be an advanced nurse practitioner studying for her masters degree while pursuing her love of photography.

Her photographic work is already well known, with her images inspiring Chris Difford from the 1970s rock band Squeeze and his album Song Club.