Picturing the Patient: Photography in Surrey Hospitals, 1850-1960

Saturday 6th September, 11am

A fascinating talk by Julian Pooley, Director of Surrey History Centre.

Surrey had many psychiatric and learning disability hospitals, and their archives inform our understanding of historic attitudes to mental illness, epilepsy, and a wide spectrum of learning disabilities. Medical case notes telling the personal stories of thousands of people, young and old, who were admitted to these vast institutions are often accompanied by a photographic portrait of the patient, bringing us face to face with a person long dead through the emulsion held in negative on a fragile glass plate or sepia image captured on paper.

Often taken on admission to the hospital, we see them at a particularly vulnerable time in their lives and their gaze both challenges and resonates with us through shared emotions and experiences. They are an important resource for the history of asylum photography, shedding light on the history of mental health, the social background of patients and the approaches to care and treatment provided by different institutions in Surrey over more than a century.

You will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the talk.

Tickets: £12*

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