Ikon presents Front and Centre, a photography project that celebrates the individual personalities of people with a profound and multiple learning disability (PMLD) and the importance of family.

People with a PMLD are one of the most hidden groups in society as they have a severe learning disability, do not use words to communicate and have an additional physical disability and health conditions. As a result, they are rarely exposed to opportunities within the arts as their disability is seen as prohibitive to inclusion.

Front and Centre sees beyond disability, utilising photographs to tell people’s stories where verbal communication is absent, and locating the lives of people with a PMLD within a tapestry of family portraiture to demonstrate the universality of experiences, such as growing up and family life.

The project is led by Changing Our Lives, a rights-based organisation that works in co-production with disabled people, and people of all ages with lived experience of mental health difficulties, to find solutions to social injustice and health inequality. Their work is rooted in the belief that no one is too disabled and no one’s mental health is too complex to lead an ‘ordinary life’.

Front and Centre features a series of portraits by Katie Seymour, an Associate of Changing Our Lives. Seymour seeks to increase disability representation in a manner that rejects tokenism by emphasising a person’s individuality and personality, over disability.

This exhibition is funded by the Inclusive Communities Fund.