Ruby Cromer is a photographer making still lifes and self-portraits that ruminate on illness and investigate the power dynamics of patient care.
Self-Portrait (as Nurse since 1977), 2021, digital photograph
[Image Description: A portrait of me, a white person with thin, short brown hair, wearing fruit-patterned scrubs and plum-colored lipstick and eyeshadow. I am shown from the waist-up and slightly hunched over, and my lips are pursed in a look of exhaustion and slight condemnation. Pinned to my chest is a blue pin that has a halo over the letters “RN,” and dangling from that is a blue and white ID badge with a photograph of me and the words “Patient Photographer” below. Behind my head is a black background covered with a circular cloud of nursing career pins.]