Sign language stories

I’m proud to announce ‘Sign Language Stories’ - a major new series of portraits commissioned by the Wellcome Collection.

‘It celebrates British Sign Language (BSL) in all its power and expressiveness, fluidity and grace.

You can view it at the Wellcome Stories site.

In many ways, film and video are the ideal media for BSL. After all, it’s a non-verbal language – one that uses visual movement to communicate.

But as a photographer, I’m more interested in how still images can freeze a moment for the viewer to gaze at.

I see it as a healthy challenge: how to use one visual language – photography – to capture the essence of another, BSL.

So, I invited eight deaf friends into the portrait studio – not to pose but to be their natural selves and to sign their stories while I took their photos.

This isn’t intended to be a dictionary to illustrate particular signs. It’s more concerned about personality, expression, moods, movement, energy, shapes and angles.

Warm thanks to my collaborators for bringing their authentic selves to the project: Rose Ayling-Ellis, Peter Brown, Gavin Lilley, Nadia Nadarajah, Signkid, Sarah Adedeji, Raymond Antrobus and Chisato Minamimura.