PPE Portrait Project

The PPE Portrait Project was created by Mary Beth Heffernan, a Los Angeles-based artist working in photography, sculpture, installation, and social practice art. Originally developed during the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak in Liberia, the project was designed to combat the dehumanizing effect of personal protective equipment (PPE), which, though necessary for infection control, concealed the faces of healthcare workers from their patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was revived by Cati Brown-Johnson from Stanford University School of Medicine. The project utilizes disposable headshots of healthcare workers that are printed and affixed to their gowns or PPE gear. These portraits restore a vital aspect of caregiving, which is the human presence. In COVID or quarantine wards, the emotional distress and physical vulnerability are acute. The appearance of even a small photograph could change the dynamic of care, as it visually humanizes the atmosphere and healthcare worker-patient interactions.

As a kind of social practice art (an art form that emphasizes community involvement and collaboration, often focusing on social and political issues. It involves people as the medium or material of the artwork, shifting the focus from traditional art objects to the social interaction and collaborative process itself. Its credit is often not measured in aesthetic appreciation but in the depth of social response. To assess the portraits’ effectiveness, Dr. Brown-Johnson conducted a six-day pilot in which nurses alternated between wearing and not wearing the portraits; the survey result reflects a more relaxed and effective interaction between patients and clinicians. The project is a functional art intervention that directly addresses and attempts to resolve the emotional and psychological dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Art here does not simply act as an advocacy, but as an actual tool. It also shifts the idea of authorship from the artist alone to a collective process involving patients, providers, and researchers.