Open Britain exhibition at Charing Cross Hospital
A photography exhibit celebrating the contributions first-generation migrants have made to the NHS is now on display in the main entrance of Charing Cross Hospital.
JJ Keith’s exhibit, Open Britain: Portrait of a Diverse Nation, was developed in collaboration with Imperial Health Charity and is supported by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. It features 21 new photographs of NHS staff, including nurses, porters, play specialists and midwives. The exhibition will remain at Charing Cross until the autumn, when it will move to St Mary's and Hammersmith hospitals and then find a permanent home at the Trust.
Through Open Britain: Portrait of a Diverse Nation, JJ set out to use his camera to capture the contributions migrants have made to life in the UK.
Four months into the project, while photographing a German psychoanalyst, JJ was awakened to the relevance of his own migration story to this work. He had previously thought of his own background – his father was a Jewish refugee in the Second World War – merely as ‘a convenient backstory’ to this project.
JJ said: “As I spoke to her, I was overcome with emotion and started to well up. She made me realise that far from a convenient backstory, it was in fact the motivation for why I had embraced this project so whole-heartedly.”
To date, JJ has photographed 150 first-generation migrants. The photographs are all taken with the subject staring directly into the eyes of the viewer. He said: “It’s a stylistic choice of mine to have them fully confrontational, directly looking down the lens. I want people to feel like they’re meeting them.
“It is hard to think of another institution that both benefits the UK and relies so heavily on a migrant workforce than the NHS. It was top of my list of collaborators and thankfully Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust was happy to open its doors.”
JJ spent four days at St Mary’s, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals to capture the shots. One of his favourite photos in the exhibition is of Rhona, a matron and theatre manager from the Philippines who had to leave her family behind when she moved to London. JJ said: “She was so lovely and friendly and open. We were in a little washroom off an operation theatre, and the lighting was excellent, so I got loads of really good shots.
“She told me how she left her young child behind in the Philippines when she was recruited by the NHS. It was very emotional. But her story came full circle because her daughter went through medical school and is now joining St Mary’s Hospital as a doctor. It’s a wonderful, circular story.”
Lucy Zacaria, head of arts at Imperial Health Charity, said: “We were delighted to work with JJ on this powerful, affirming exhibition that pays such a warm and authentic tribute to the contributions migrant communities have had not only in our hospitals, but across the NHS for many, many years.
“It’s a celebration of the benefits of migration, and we are grateful not only to JJ for his vision, but also for the openness of each of the subjects of his photos, who have shared so much of themselves to make this exhibition a success.”
The Arts Team at Imperial Health Charity have a comprehensive arts engagement programme and a museum accredited collection of over 2,000 works. They are passionate about improving patient experience through displays, exhibitions, events and workshops.
Further information
- View the 24 original staff portraits for Open Britain
- Read JJ Keith's blog explaining why Open Britain matters
- Find out more about the Arts Team at Imperial Health Charity.
