Last week saw the launch event at St Albans Cathedral of MacIntyre’s travelling Photo Exhibition. In it, we focus on people who live in Hertfordshire, drawing on MacIntyre’s support.
For this exhibition, we wanted to do something a little different. Instead of smiling faces peering into the camera, we looked for a way to share people’s lives in a more reflective way.
How do you share someone’s story when they don’t usually communicate using words? Well you share what you know about them and bring their stories to life using words and images. We asked photographer Susan Alexander to take a series of shots representing each person’s story.
Take Millie. She loves swimming. It’s her absolute favourite thing to do. The image Sue took of a bird splashing through the water represents Millie’s love of splashing in the water, the mischief and fun. Millie's a wheelchair user and can't weight-bear on land, but in the water she's free.
Or Archie, who loves nothing more than being in motion. He shows he loves movement through his face and laughter, when he spins around the floor at his dance class. The image of whirling motion represents his passion for freedom, fun and movement.
We were so pleased with the imaginative way in which everyone concerned made this exhibition happen: the people who are featured in the story images, their perceptive staff, their families and friends, and the photographers Sue Alexander and Dave Kotula. And thanks must also go to the staff at St Albans Cathedral for being so accommodating.
Laura Horn, exhibition organiser and Engagement Coordinator at MacIntyre said:
We were delighted to see so many people at the launch exhibition, including family members and friends. We hope this exhibition gives a glimpse into what can be seen as hidden lives. We are so used to communicating verbally, it can take more effort to understand the stories of people who are unable to do so.
Andrea Parr, Adult Social Care Director South for MacIntyre said:
It makes me so proud to see everyone truly represented here in images and words. I arrived at the exhibition before it officially opened and spent a lot of time just soaking up the results of this collaboration. It was so moving to understand the sheer variety of people’s lives, from Billy, a lifelong Watford FC fan who loves a pint, to Judith, who loves hymns and classical and church music.
A family member said:
I’m just blown away by how imaginative this is. You could so easily have just put up photo portraits of people with their names, but this captures who they are. And it’s brilliant seeing how much my sister is enjoying today.
We have plans for the exhibition to travel around different locations in the coming weeks, so look out for news of that. Meanwhile you can see the two slideshows of everyone’s image story below.
