NHS 75 Photography shortlist announced
NHS colleagues have been shortlisted from across the country, including two from the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust.
A list of the top 75 people who work or volunteer for the NHS and entered a photo contest for its 75th anniversary has been revealed. The photos show special moments, like a picture of 102-year-old Beryl Carr, the oldest volunteer, and a patient playing the violin while having brain surgery.
The country-wide photo contest, organized by NHS England and Fujifilm UK, had many NHS workers and volunteers from all over the UK share their personal stories about the NHS. They did this through photography, showing what the NHS means to them.
The 75 short-listed photographs will be displayed at an exhibition at Fujifilm House of Photography in Covent Garden, London and open to public viewing from the 5th July 2023 – 75 years to the day from the date that the NHS was created.
The photo collection shows the wide range of kindness, strength, and top-level skill in the NHS. These qualities are just as strong now as they were when the NHS started on July 5, 1948.
One of the images features someone who can recall the very first day the NHS came into existence, Britain’s oldest volunteer 102-year-old Beryl Carr.
The image, by Steve Watkins at London Northwest University Healthcare NHS Trust, was taken on one of Beryl’s once-a-month volunteering shifts at the Friends Café in Ealing Hospital – a role she started as an 80-year-old in 2003 preparing food and operating the till for visitors to the café.
Among the other entries there are striking images capturing a patient playing a violin while undergoing brain surgery to ensure parts of the brain that control co-ordination were not damaged, as well as a pharmacy robot, air ambulances and those documenting the NHS’ world-leading COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
Two colleagues from the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust were among those to be shortlisted: Creative Design Lead Richard Pearson, and Associate Transfusion Practitioner Nesa Kelmendi.
Richard Said: “As Creative Design Lead for RCHT, a big part of my role is not only designing for print and digital media but capturing the essence of Cornwall NHS in glorious Technicolor through the medium of photography. This year I have embarked on a project that will take time to realise – documenting all departments, services and wards with new, up-to-date and engaging imagery. Until relatively recently Covid restrictions had made it difficult to be doing photography out in our clinical settings. However, we’re now at a point where we’re able to get out and about to provide this service; capturing what we do through the eye of the lens and bringing these fantastic people, patients and locations to life for all of us to enjoy.”
On being told that her work had been included in the shortlist, Nesa said: “The chosen photo portrays powerful women in a hidden world of science and technology. They might appear to be ‘behind the scenes’ of the NHS, but they’re fundamental to the diagnosis, treatment, and lifesaving support that we provide. Pictured are some of the faces of the healthcare scientists from the Blood Transfusion team, who are also part of the wider Blood Sciences Team in the Laboratory at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. I felt really pleased to be shortlisted, and to have had the value and significance of the photo recognised. I take pride in being an advocate for the unseen yet vital services of our NHS.”
Dame Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England and one of the six competition judges, said: “We were amazed at the quality of photographs submitted to the competition – it’s incredible to see the way entrants have documented life in the NHS. The compassion, the ingenuity, the camaraderie, the good times and when it gets tough – it’s all captured throughout the five categories and it’s a really fitting way to mark 75 years of the NHS.”
Joining Dame Ruth May on the judging panel were This Morning’s resident GP Dr Ellie, award-winning journalist Victoria Macdonald, eminent photographer Lewis Khan, Dr Habib Naqvi MBE and Fujifilm’s Theo Georghiades.
Each of the 75 shortlisted photographers have been invited to a special ceremony on the 4th July at the Fujifilm House of Photography to unveil all of the finalist’s photographs, with a winner for each of the competition’s five categories announced before the event (Our People, Our Innovations, Our Environment, Our Care, Our Partners.) The five winners will also have their photograph displayed at the NHS 75th anniversary service at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 5th July.
