Portrait of Humanity

x Juliette Cassidy - Maddy and Monet - London, UK

Twins Maddy and Monette.

x Juliette Cassidy - Skateistan - Afghanistan

Taken at school in Mazar-e-Sharif as part of a series covering the project of Skateistan.

x Kirstine Fryd - Tatyana - Harboøre, Denmark

The war between Russia and Ukraine has created Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II with an estimated 7.9 million people – 90 per cent of whom are women and children – fleeing Ukraine to neighbouring countries and beyond. Tatyana, 70 years old, from Kyiv, in north central Ukraine, fled to Harboøre in north-west Jutland, Denmark, with her two grandchildren. Tatyana left after witnessing the Russian attacks at Hostomel in the Kyiv region, Ukraine. This is where one of the first and most fierce battles of the war took place in which all infrastructure was destroyed. She was an eyewitness to several injuries and casualties during these attacks. “In 2009 I lost my mother. My mother was a very beautiful woman and the biggest role model I have had in my life. Her last wish was that I let my hair grow and I therefore haven’t cut it since her death.” Tatyana worked as a nurse at a tuberculosis hospital in Kyiv for several years and had her own apartment in the city. Photographed on 03 January 2023.

x Nora Obergeschwandner - In Between - Vienna, Austria

In our world, lesbian love and relationships still face numerous challenges. Despite progress towards equality and acceptance, many societies still show prejudice, discrimination and invisibility when it comes to lesbian partnerships. The stigma attached to lesbian love can lead to social isolation, lack of legal recognition, and even violence. Moreover, there is often inadequate representation and support in the media, educational institutions and within family structures. It is essential to acknowledge the issue of lesbian love, advocate for equality, and create a more inclusive and supportive society where lesbian individuals can love freely and without fear.

x Niall Miller - Freya - Glasgow, Scotland

Seven-year-old Freya was diagnosed with leukaemia and lost all of her red hair. Growing up as the only redhead in the family she was encouraged to treasure her hair and how unique it was. Through treatment she lost it all and worried it would never return. Thankfully it did and she is well and living life to the full.

x Jono Terry - Willard - Kariba, Zimbabwe

I met Willard while working on a long-term documentary about Lake Kariba and he quickly became a fixer, a friend, and a confidant. Willard spent much of his adult life working in Victoria Falls under the pseudonym DJ Glamour, although his full head of dreadlocks that reach down to his lower back has rather predictably led to a new nickname around these parts: ‘ma rasta’. He moved back to his family home following the death of his parents, whose photographs now hang above the television. This was one of the final frames I made in Kariba: Willard in his living room.

x Maria Gutu - Women at the Green Feast - Sofia, Moldova

Celebration of the Green Feast, in Sofia village, where women throw dried leaves and flowers into the river to rid the house of evil. Women also dress up, dance and act. Children and men cannot participate, and according to legend if anyone else shows up, they will be stripped naked, watered and nettled. I took this picture using my analogue camera, accidently double exposing.

x James Clifford Kent - Osaeloke - London, UK

I first met NHS consultant obstetrician Osaeloke Osakwe when he cared for my pregnant wife during the pandemic at the Queen Mary Maternity Unit at West Middlesex University Hospital, part of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. I was struck by his kindness and empathy despite the challenges the service was facing. We met again while I was working on a project at the unit. This portrait was taken in the same operating theatre where Osaeloke cared for my wife following the birth of my daughter in 2020, and we went on to record interviews in between ward rounds, caesarean sections and staff handovers. He told me how he spent his early childhood in the UK before moving back to Nigeria with his family: “My mother was a midwife, and I was five years old when I witnessed her delivering twins at a local hospital in Benin City. I knew straightaway that I wanted to work in maternity.”

x Jonathan Benjamin Small - Ebrima - Berlin, Germany

Ebrima left Ghana for Germany where he works as a cook in a bar. This is part of an ongoing series on migrants and refugees.

x Ollie Tikare - Untitled - Lagos, Nigeria

‘Ọ̀dọ́’ (‘Youth’ in Yoruba) is a portrait series about young men in Lagos, Nigeria. 70 per cent of Nigerians are below the age of 30, and in Lagos especially, youth is everywhere. Street life is dominated by young men hustling, either selling goods or some sort of service. I spent a month exploring the crowded streets with my camera. As a mixed race half-Nigerian, my fairer skin made me a curiosity to many but I experienced most stares and curious looks as invitations for connection. The resulting series is part of a wider body of work about the city that attempts to humanise what is a vast and complex place. By spotlighting individuals who might otherwise be overlooked in the urban bustle, ‘Ọ̀dọ́’ challenges prevailing stereotypes around masculinity and security while celebrating the resilience, creativity and diversity of Lagos’ youth.

x Tom Ringsby - China Town - Accra, Ghana

Prince Aryee posing atop the foundational pillars of a building site on Chinese-owned beach land in the neighbourhood of Ga Nshornaa in Accra, Ghana. Previously a neighbourhood housing thousands of locals who were forcibly displaced after the sitting president sold off the land to the Chinese government, something happening across the African continent. The locals were ordered to move a few hundred metres down the beach where they had to rebuild their homes and community. The local fishermen have also had to operate further down the coastline where the waves are bigger and therefore less fruitful, impacting their business and the city’s food supply. The costume Prince wears is a local artist’s creation bearing a taxidermied lion’s head and a headpiece with a snake’s head and goat’s horns. 

x Brian O' Hanlon - Adley Florian - Manchester, UK

On a recent visit to the National Portrait Gallery, London, I noticed a striking connection to a 1862 albumen print of Aina (Sarah Forbes Bonetta), a Yoruba woman from West Africa who was a favourite goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Despite Adley Florian’s pose, her assured gaze and her contemporary durag, I had no knowledge of the historical portrait. “Resemblance and pictures are intuitively linked together. But it remains to be seen whether one understands pictures by noticing resemblances or notices resemblances as a result of understanding pictures” – Lopes, Dominic, ‘Representation and Resemblance’, Understanding Pictures, Oxford Philosophical Monographs (Oxford, 2004; online edn, Oxford Academic, 3 Oct. 2011).

x Juan Brenner - Untitled, from the series This Universe - Guatemala City, Guatemala

My family history, particularly a very complex relationship with my father, comes into play when trying to heal many years of mental instability, substance abuse and depression. If a specific image looks different every time I pull it from my mental ‘hard disk’, is it the same memory? Did it happen just once or did it happen many times? Or am I visiting a different universe where everything ended up being different? Quantum physics and mathematics are part of my research, an unconscious need to manipulate the past, fix the present and reshape the future becomes evident in these photographic exercises. Revisiting the same memory over and over is something I do obsessively, mental images stored in my brain keep changing and evolving. I am really interested in how details and the visual scenario of the past changes every time I go there; a series of incredible coincidences and accidents have made these images possible.

x Andy Martin - Betty Cook, Women Against Pit Closures - Durham, UK

Betty was a founding member of the Barnsley Miners’ Wives Action Group which led to the formation of Woman Against Pit Closures in Barnsley at the start of the 1984 Miners’ Strike. Her involvement began with running soup kitchens for the striking miners and attending women’s meetings. She later met Anne Scargill and they became firm friends, spearheading the WAPC movement in their area. Alongside many miners’ wives, they gave every available hour to support the cause, participating in demonstrations, speaking at rallies, raising funds, and so much more. During the strike, Betty was arrested for picketing outside Michael Heseltine’s office in Westminster, sustaining a serious knee injury at the hands of the police after being beaten with a truncheon. Betty was photographed here after speaking about her experiences of the strike at an event to celebrate the Women Against Pit Closures movement in Durham, March 2024. The WAPC T-shirt she is wearing is her original from 1984.

x Kenny Lemes - Magalí - Buenos Aires, Argentina

(PART-1) These are the last portraits of Magalí when she was alive. She was one of the few trans women who survived the military dictatorship in my country. Until recently in Argentina trans women had a life expectancy of only 35 years. Beset by stigma and violence, the majority of these women were expelled from their homes at a young age and if any of them had a chance to study they would shortly leave school too, bullied and harassed by classmates and ignored by the national education system. Without support from their families and with no education, a large number of the ‘travesti’ community struggled to survive.

x Erberto Zani - Anumukherjee - Delhi, India

Anumukherjee is an acid attack survivor. In 2004, one of her female friends, jealous of her beauty, attacked her with acid. The criminal was jailed for 10 years and now is free. Anumukherjee had to have 22 surgeries but lost both eyes. This photograph is part of my long-term project ‘Survivors’, about acid attack survivors around the world.

x Edward Matthews - After The Flood - Kherson Oblast, Ukraine

A Kherson resident surrounded by the waterlogged contents of her home after the Nova Kakhovka dam was destroyed.

x Betty Oxlade-Martin - After school in Kerala - Kerala, India

In Kerala, schoolgirls radiate joy as they journey home. The vibrant hues of their school uniforms illuminate the streets at dawn and dusk. Adorned with beautiful waistcoats, tunics, bows and plaits, they wear their education with pride. In a region where access to education can be limited, the celebration of learning shines brightly among children.

x David Davis - The Cost of Failed Liberation - Sri Lanka

In 2023, I travelled to Sri Lanka to engage with the Tamil community on a sensitive topic. During the civil war (1983–2009), up to 100,000 people (Amnesty International) were ‘disappeared’ by the Sinhalese government. Most of them vanished in the final year of the war. While the push did end the conflict, it came at a high price: many innocent people were detained and disappeared. Pictured here is one of the mothers who lost her 14-year-old son. One day, he left for school and never returned. It was an all-too-common story; no man, woman or child was safe from the white vans. The most heartbreaking aspect is that everyone still believes their family members will return to them one day. Their hope and desperation have given rise to conspiracy theories about underground prisons. To this day, the Tamil community in Sri Lanka continue to face persecution from the Sinhalese government.

x Vladimir Karamazov - On the Border - Bulgaria

When you are forced to leave your life and start over in a new place with new people there is an old tradition of sitting in silence for a minute before leaving. The minute between memories and the unknown. The minute to remember all the good moments of your life so far and to mobilise for the unknown new beginning. A minute you will remember forever. To find yourself at the border, to leave your life and go looking for another without wanting it. In recent years, this has become commonplace.

x Cianeh Kpukuyou - Portrait of the North - Northern Ghana

‘Portrait of the North’ is a project highlighting the lives of individuals from northern Ghana, with Gifty at its heart. Gifty’s story, centred around her salon, embodies the resilience, warmth and community spirit of the region, where the diverse cultural tapestry fosters inclusivity and acceptance.

x Aaron Yeandle - The African Guernsey Community Project - Guernsey

‘The African Guernsey Photographic Project’ is a reflection on our ever-changing communities. It aims to celebrate the diversity of the African community that plays a large part in Guernsey society. The work is a social heritage project which will become a photographic archival record of the ever-changing moments that make Guernsey a unique place. It comprises intimate portraits of people from different African countries who live and work in Guernsey. Many of the portraits have been taken in people’s homes so alongside bringing positive awareness of the vibrant African communities, it documents the rich heritage that the individuals bring.

x Katerina Tsakiri - The Smiley Cut - Gothenburg, Sweden

‘The Smiley Cut’ stands as a visual chronicle of my journey through cancer treatment. The photographic medium provided an outlet for me to navigate the stages of grief and confront the transformative journey my body was undertaking. Through these images, I reclaimed a measure of control over my own physicality. While time seemed to stretch infinitely a tranquil refuge emerged in the forest near my home: Safjället. This serene landscape became my sanctuary. I ran and walked multiple times in it. I met there with friends, I photographed it, I made it part of my journey. The loop I was running every day signified the circularity of chemotherapies and the side effects that my body was racing to overcome. The Safjällsgatan’s sign was the view of the beginning and the end of every run I did. In this work the public becomes private and the private public as a need for expression and connection through empathy and vulnerability.

x Irma Mauro - Harlem Kids - New York City, USA

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x Laura Pannack - Project Hope - Cape Town, South Africa

The project explores the boundaries of play in the gang-filled area where crossfire is a weekly occurrence. Together we explore youth in the Cape Flats through a series of workshops.

x Mariam Magsi - You may veil us, but you will never dictate who we love - Toronto, Canada

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x Dalila Coelho - Tamara Bronze, from the series ‘It’s Summer All Year Round’ - Belo Horizonte, Brazil

The series ‘É verão o ano inteiro’ (‘It’s Summer All Year Round’) documents the emergence of natural tanning houses in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a conservative state’s capital far from the beach, where trends from marginalised areas are rarely noticed by other citizens. In this series, I covered the work of three women who earn their living from sun to sun developing techniques so that their clients can achieve perfect tan lines through the use of economic materials such as electrical tape. In the images, saturated colors, blue sky, coloured tape bikinis and real bodies transport us to sunny days that seem suspended in time. This project is an effort to capture South American and, most specifically, suburban Brazilian cultures and aesthetics, showing how the beauty salons built by suburban women are spaces of inclusion, where the workers are agents of change, focused both on achieving their financial autonomy and enhancing the self-esteem of other women who are often made invisible by society.

x Sani Nuhu - Sisterhood - Kaduna, Nigeria

Portrait of Ganiyat and Maryam celebrating not only the deep bond shared between two sisters but also underscoring the richness of diversity and culture within their relationship.

x Debra Hurford Brown - Harry with Mask - London, UK

Harry, my son, has been my muse since birth. He was born two months prematurely and a year later he was diagnosed with a rare syndrome. Over the last 23 years I have documented Harry at pivotal times and have kept the resulting images privately for myself. Harry has always struggled with his appearance due to his condition but as he has matured he has begun to enjoy the process of being photographed by myself. This portrait was taken last year during a period of observation while he was waiting for diagnosis of high-functioning autism.

x Amy Woodward - Georgia, Xave and Bo – hours before they became a family of five - Tasmania, Australia

Georgia, Xave and Bo in the backyard, just hours before Georgia free-birthed her surprise twin sons at home. At this stage, Georgia’s waters had already broken – it was a deep privilege to witness the sacred early stages of her labour. Work photographed remotely in Lutruwita, Tasmania, from Gubbi Gubbi/Kabi Kabi Country/Sunshine Coast.