Tufts Medical Center BSL-3 Laboratory Photo Shoot

Arnold 8 Biosafety Lab at the Tufts University Medical School

On any given day, we, members of PAYETTE’s Marketing Department, spend our time doing what we do best: Marketing and Graphic Design. But a few weeks ago, we decided that instead of spending our day at the office, we would pay a visit to the island – “Containment Island.”

On this island, drinks with umbrellas were replaced with Tyvek suits and face masks. On this day, we donned these stylish items in a photo shoot. With Chris Baylow on hand for art direction and photography by Keitaro Yoshioka, our all-star team was ready for our close-up. Team ‘PAYETTE Marketing’ entered a new zone, known as a Biosafety Laboratory (BSL-3), or more specifically, the Arnnold 8 Biosafety Lab at Tufts University Medical School.

We moved boxes, tidied up the space and were given a lesson on how to act like a professional researcher. To look real, we had to make the experience as real as possible, a part of the process that people often don’t think about. We were dressed with two pairs of rubber gloves each, one of which had to be taped around our wrists to seal us into our suits. We learned how to hold certain laboratory tools as realistically as possible. Not only did we have to learn how hold these tools, but we had to hold them for long periods of time, without moving. When we weren’t holding extended poses, we were asked to ‘walk faster’ or ‘slower this time’ and ‘ok, again,’ and again. There’s no question to why we were so wiped at the end of the day—imagine boiling to death inside hermetically sealed Tyvek suits for hours. The real researches will have to do this for four hours at a time (with no breaks.)

As for the frames that were captured, Chris clearly explained the rationale behind why we want to get certain angles and why. Light and transparency were the most important attributes. The connectedness of the biosafety lab to the exterior lab benches greatly enhanced our experience.

Photography copyright Keitaro Yoshioka

Related:
Containment Island
PAYETTE work at Tufts University