Christina Kolaiti (Media/Fine Art)
AHRC Funded Practice-led PhD
Start Date: October 2005

Title: The Role of Photography in Healthcare Dialogue

These two photographs are from a series of images built upon my interest in the relationship between self-photography and self-portraiture. During this project I was particularly concerned with the use of medical prostheses and the issue of body ‘substitutes’.

In 2002 I began to explore the potential of my practice in a healthcare situation when I was commissioned to work on the Just Well-loved project instigated by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust and Northumbria University. This project was set up to provide a more meaningful and personalised environment for children being treated in the new Children’s Accident and Emergency Area at the Wansbeck Hospital. The photographic artworks I developed for Just Well-loved were realised in collaboration with primary and first school pupils throughout Northumberland.

From this year (2005) I am funded by an AHRC New Collaborations Award to undertake doctoral research on the benefits of photography in healthcare institutions. For the next three years I will be working closely with doctors and patients at the North Tyneside General Hospital. My intention is to use photography to explore the process of communication between doctor and patient and my plan involves, in the first instance, the creation of images that make medical procedures and equipment more familiar for the patients who use this hospital. At present I am designing a PhD project that will complement and develop the many interesting projects undertaken by artists in relation to the professional and institutional aspects of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust.