If there’s one thing Dr. Joseph Gascho wants you to do, it’s to open your eyes to new possibilities and really see things.
Gascho, a cardiologist with Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute, spends his time outside of the hospital behind a camera, taking photos of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center staff, doctors and patients.
“I want other people to see what I see,” he explained. “I’m interested in perceiving and seeing what’s going on, and photography is a way of doing that.
“In hospitals, I want people to see that people are more than they appear to be on the surface. Patients are more than just patients, and doctors are more than just doctors.”
That is evident in his work. Gascho’s photography has been featured both on and off campus. He currently has a series of photographs on display outside the Rotunda Café featuring Hershey Medical Center support staff, including a maintenance worker, a painter, a shuttle bus driver and more. He also has a permanent display of patient portraits outside the Medical Center chapel, as well as a series outside the Heart and Vascular Institute IO Silver Clinic highlighting doctors enjoying their hobbies outside of work. His goal is to show that these patients and doctors are more than just what they appear to be on the surface.
The photo series outside the cafeteria features portraits of support staff dressed to the nines and holding a prop that represents their positions. Gascho was inspired to create the series by his father, a maintenance worker for a college who earned 75 cents per hour.
Read more about Gascho and his work in this Penn State Medicine article.
View Dr. Gascho's work in this Flickr album.