Visualising relationships between the arts and health: photography for research, engagement and expression

Song and Soft Embrace (2022), taken by Ioana Ofelia, shows a group of mothers at the Cluj Cultural Centre in Romania participating in a 10-week singing intervention to support women experiencing postpartum depression. The project was based on research from the Centre for Performance Science and was led by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Related research, such as a three-arm randomised controlled trial, studied the effect of singing interventions on postnatal depression symptoms. The intervention not only helped reduce symptoms but also built social connections and helped mothers bond with their infants.

Clown Me In (2023), taken by Evelina Rönnbäck, shows Sabine Choucair leading a clowning workshop for children in a refugee camp in Kahramanmaraş, Southern Türkiye. The workshop helps children build emotional resilience, process trauma, and foster connection through play and laughter. This initiative is part of a collaboration with Clowns Without Borders Sweden to provide psychosocial support in displacement settings. Previous studies have shown that medical clowning can reduce stress and improve outcomes for children.

Giving Blood at the Museum (2021), taken by the Museum of Fine Arts in Orléans, France, shows civilians donating blood in one of the museum's art galleries. This initiative, a collaboration with the French Blood Establishment (Etablissement Français du Sang), aims to increase blood donation participation by offering a peaceful, culturally engaging environment for donors. Since the monthly drives started in 2021, all appointment slots have been filled, and the project has been repeated in other French museums.

Universe of Brains (2024), taken by Sydelle Willow Smith, shows a puppetry performance promoting brain health at a rural school in San Juan, Argentina. The project aims to increase public awareness of brain health throughout life. The educational model was adapted into a touring puppet show to make resources accessible to children in areas where non-communicable disease intersects with poverty.

Johar... Up in the Air (2016), taken by Patrick Baz, shows a drama therapy project at Lebanon's largest prison, Roumieh Prison. Men in the prison participated in a powerful production of Zeina Daccache's play, using theatre to amplify marginalised voices and call for legal reform. The project, produced by Catharsis, the Lebanese Centre for Drama Therapy, explored the connection between mental health and incarceration and helped to improve relationships between prison staff and residents.

Let's Move! (2022), taken by a volunteer, shows a professional dancer leading a group of children and adolescents from low-income families in a street dance performance as part of National Arts in Health Week Nigeria. The initiative demonstrated how street dance can support children's mental health and emotional well-being. Engagement in dance can also help youths cultivate essential life skills and enhance emotional resilience.

Camps Breakerz (2023), taken by Ahmed Alghariz, shows a young boy performing a breakdance move in a refugee camp in Gaza, Palestine. The initiative brings breakdancing workshops to refugee camps and schools, using dance as a tool to support mental health, build peer networks, and provide moments of freedom and joy. The project emerged from the lived experience of its founders, who used hip-hop culture to process trauma and build community. Research has shown that group-based physical activities can reduce symptoms of chronic stress and post-traumatic symptoms, particularly in post-conflict and refugee settings.

Wreaths of Resilience (2024), taken by Humayun Memon, shows a henna design being applied to the head of a young patient with cancer in Karachi's Indus Hospital, Pakistan. The project, delivered in partnership with Henna Healing Arts, offered children with cancer a creative, uplifting experience by using intricate henna designs in the shape of wreaths to represent the children's courage. The tactile nature of applying henna was shown to have a meditative, therapeutic effect on participants.

The AIDS Quilt (1987), taken by Jean-Louis Atlan, shows the AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed on the National Mall in Washington, DC, USA. The vast collaborative artwork, with over 50,000 panels, served as a powerful expression of collective mourning and remembrance, transforming grief into activism and making the human cost of the epidemic unignorable. The quilt challenged widespread political indifference and media silence around the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Art of Healing (2022), taken by Jochi Session, shows Nigerian artist Olumide Onadipe working on a mural in the Male Psychiatric Unit of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. This project, part of the The Art of Healing (TAOH) initiative, transformed the space into an uplifting environment. Drawing on research linking murals with workplace belonging and well-being, these interventions were designed to improve mental health through art while fostering a sense of community within the hospital.

Movement is thy Mantra (2019), taken by Digitally, shows Dr Vonita Singh and caregivers engaging a patient with Parkinson's disease in Kathak dance moves in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The image is from Still Dancing, a dance-theatre production where individuals with Parkinson's perform alongside professional dancers. The production aims to increase public awareness of Parkinson's disease and demonstrates how dance can empower individuals to overcome physical, emotional, and social challenges.

Jo Spence wearing a helmet (1982), taken by Jo Spence in collaboration with Terry Dennett and Maggie Murray, is a self-portrait from the series The Picture of Health?. The photograph was taken during Spence's treatment for breast cancer and reveals the complex interplay of identity, health, and societal pressures. Spence, a photographer who explored the personal and political dimensions of illness, foregrounded photography as a way for people to own the narratives of their illness.

A Dying Wish (2015), taken by Roel Foppen, shows a woman who is terminally ill looking at a Rembrandt painting at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her visit was made possible by the Dutch non-profit organisation Stichting Ambulance Wens Nederland (Ambulance Wish Foundation), which offers people who are terminally ill moments of joy in their last days. The initiative, which has fulfilled nearly 24,000 wishes, highlights that the quality of end-of-life care is not solely biological, but also profoundly human.

The HeadUp Collar (2015), taken by Heath Reed, shows an innovative cervical orthosis designed to alleviate neck weakness in patients with motor neurone disease. Developed through a collaborative and interdisciplinary research project between creatives and healthcare professionals at Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the device is now in use at 25 NHS trusts in the UK and is available globally.

Traffic culture (2011), taken by Ariana Cubillos, shows a mime artist guiding a woman across a street in Caracas, Venezuela. This creative initiative to reduce traffic fatalities reframed traffic safety as a shared cultural responsibility and used humour and play to disrupt harmful norms. It followed the example of Antanas Mockus, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who retrained corrupt traffic police officers as mime artists, an approach that helped to reduce fatalities by 50%.

Dancing with Dad (2012), taken by Michael Koon Boon Tan, shows a tender moment between a son and his father who is living with progressive supranuclear palsy. The image is from an installation that intimately explores themes of caregiving, love, and resilience. The artist-caregiver used art to process his experience and to invite viewers to reflect on how artistic expression can deepen our understanding of illness.

Keith Haring mural (2023; mural 1986), taken by Nicholas Knight, shows a mural gifted by artist Keith Haring in the lobby of NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull at Woodhull Medical Centre. Haring, who was deeply committed to health advocacy and spoke openly about illness, stigma, and compassion after his AIDS diagnosis, believed his art should be accessible to everyone. The mural transforms the hospital's typically functional architecture into a joyful space that fosters energy, dignity, and life.

Lockdown (2020), taken by Antoine d'Agata, is from a series of artworks the photographer produced through thermal imaging technology to visualise the "essence of humanity" during the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The artwork blurs the boundaries between art practice and health communication by stripping away visual identity and revealing a shared human vulnerability. It positions the artist as both witness and moral actor, offering an alternative historical record that registers the psychological atmosphere of the crisis.

Sightlines I (2009), taken by David Cotterrell, shows trauma surgery in a British military field hospital in Helmand, Afghanistan. The photograph is part of a series documenting the contemporary UK military care pathway, which aimed to raise professional and public awareness of the ethical and practical complexities of militarised healthcare. The artist acted as a trusted independent observer, revealing perspectives that had been obstructed and raising difficult societal questions that had been suppressed.

Positively Shameless (2017), taken by TT Venkatesh, shows a woman performing "the moment before the flashback" in a therapeutic theatre performance addressing childhood sexual trauma in Bengaluru, India. The project, co-developed by participants in a drama therapy group, sought to provoke dialogue and challenge stigma by moving from the private space of therapy to the public stage. Creative expression allows survivors to reclaim their narratives, challenge shame, and make the invisible visible.

Little Amal (2023), taken by David Lan, shows a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child crossing the Rio Grande at the border of Mexico and the USA. The puppet's global journey aims to raise awareness about the social well-being and human rights of forcibly displaced people. The project, designed to foster cross-cultural dialogue and awareness, offers a poignant, large-scale symbol of empathy, solidarity, and the need for global action on human rights.

Together Un/Tethered performance (2023), taken by Brian Roberts, is an immersive performance in Liverpool, UK, inspired by the Arts for the Blues project. The arts-based group intervention for depression, low mood, and anxiety, blends movement, spoken word, and soundscape to explore themes of separation, connection, and renewal. The performance aimed to demystify the therapeutic process and invite wider audiences to have a proxy experience of the therapeutic journey for themselves.

Art is a Doctor (2014-16), taken by Miki Kap-Herr, shows an art intervention at a child and adolescent psychiatry clinic in Salzburg, Austria. The 2-year pilot project offered creative arts interventions, including singing, music, textile design, drama, and clownery, for young people with mental health challenges. The initiative, inspired by artist Zenita Komad's phrase "Art is a doctor," emphasised the therapeutic role of creativity in mental health.

The Museum-Suitcase: The Imaginary Sea (2021), taken by Thibaut Chapotot, shows a miniature travelling museum designed for hospital staff and patients. The museum, which showcases original works by artists such as Miquel Barceló and Yves Klein, was created as a therapeutic tool to facilitate creative engagement for patients and caregivers with limited access to traditional museums. The pilot project was successfully trialled for a year at Sainte-Anne Psychiatric Hospital in Paris and is currently on tour.

Balcony Mood Boost (2020), taken by Cristina Quicler, shows a woman singing from her balcony in Triana, Seville, Spain, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The act, which transformed a private space into a moment of shared connection, was part of a grassroots response worldwide, where residents turned to singing and music-making from balconies as spontaneous acts of emotional relief. These acts of creativity generated social connection and eased loneliness at a time of huge isolation.

Pyramids of Garbage (2020), taken by Bahia Shehab, shows an 11-metre wide, 6-metre high pyramid made out of garbage in a densely populated area of Cairo, Egypt. The artwork exemplifies our throw-away world and highlights the inseparable link between the climate crisis and the global health crisis. The project aimed to raise awareness for TED's Countdown, an initiative to promote urgent solutions to the climate crisis.

Well-Being Concert (2023), taken by Fadi Kheir, shows mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and pianist Howard Watkins leading an audience through exercises at a Carnegie Hall Well-Being Concert in New York. The concert series aims to explore how live music can enhance individual and collective well-being and serves as an innovative artistic laboratory, partnering with scholars and scientists to investigate music's impact on health. Research shows that music can reduce stress hormones and lower blood pressure.

The Poetry Pharmacy Live Workshop (2025), taken by Kim Szalavicz, shows a workshop run by The Poetry Pharmacy, an initiative that provides prescriptions of poems to people in diverse settings, including hospitals and prisons. The project, founded by William Sieghart, aims to support well-being and address loneliness, which he identified as a common issue. A partnership with Hospital Rooms will air the workshop in mental health wards.

Harvey Speck (2019), taken by Chip Thomas, shows a photograph of former uranium miner Harvey Speck, installed in a rural location in the Navajo Nation. The work is part of the photographer's effort to highlight the impact of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation. Over 500 uranium mines operated on Navajo land during the Cold War, and by the late 1990s, deaths from cancer among the Diné (Navajo) had doubled. Thomas, a medical doctor, used his 30-year experience in the community to earn trust and powerfully convey their stories.

Colour in Faith, Kibera (2014), taken by Yazmany Arboleda, shows a corrugated-metal church in Nairobi's Kibera settlement that has been painted in a radiant, optimistic yellow. The project, which was a response to terrorism and religious divisions, involved community members of different faiths painting churches, mosques, and temples. These buildings became beacons of resilience, and the act of painting together was described as a gesture of healing, showing how art can function as civic infrastructure and nurture social well-being.

Everyday Waltzes for Active Ageing (2018), photographed in a residential care home in Singapore, shows older adults taking part in a creative movement session facilitated by The Arts Fission Company. The programme adapts everyday gestures into expressive movements to support well-being in later life. It offers a model for how the arts can be embedded into care infrastructures in an ageing society.

JR, Tehachapi, California, aerial view of the pasting, daytime, USA (2019), taken by JR, shows a large-scale installation on the yard of Tehachapi maximum security prison in California. The project involved photographing and recording the stories of 48 men, including people who had been or were still incarcerated, prison staff, and victims of crime. The final installation, which could be clearly seen from above, showed prisoners, former prisoners, and prison staff standing shoulder to shoulder, momentarily dissolving the rigid boundaries of the prison system.