I’ve had the privilege of supplying supporting photography to a HM The Queen Platinum Jubillee-funded community art project that took place in two local hospitals.

All photographs ©ShaunArmstrong2022

The ‘take heART’ art and wellbeing staff-led group within Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation, along with Creative Community Producer and all-round dynamo Kayte Judge, developed a project to give back; commissioning artist Anne-Marie Abbate to make new artworks as the basis for wall-art installations whilst also delivering creative staff workshops and a flash-mob distribution of thank-you gifts that acknowledged the importance of ‘human touch’, especially given the recent challenges of the COVID pandemic.

Inspired by the poem ‘These are the hands…’ by Michael Rosen, Anne-Marie’s artwork considered human touch and was based on microscopic images of touch receptors in the fingers. From this idea, she created pieces of handmade artwork using paper marbling, sewing, applique and other crafting skills.

I was commissioned to produce highly detailed and defined macro images of the artwork: my selective artistic details of trial pieces for branding and promotional materials and the final pieces so they could be blown up from their original c30cm size to over 1.8m for high-impact wall installations, whilst retaining the intricacy, depth and details of patterns, threads and tiny beads.

These images were then printed and mounted in prominent public corridors at Bedford Hospital and Luton & Dunstable Hospital, along with the poem and framed original artwork pieces.

I also documented the free on-site workshops where staff, across all parts of the hospital, could drop in and try their hand at the techniques used in the artwork and I focused on ‘hands at work’.