At the 2025 International Leprosy Congress in Denpasar, Bali, we put on an exhibition in partnership with photographer Yoppy Pieter and Dr Marlous Grijsen. Yoppy and Marlous had already been collaborating together on ‘Letter from the Hills‘ about the impact of leprosy in the Indonesian island of Sumba. Together we pitched for a space there, and later (after a lot of emails, admin and negotiating!), with a small, hardworking team that Yoppy, Marlous and Marlous’ assitant Baim helped organise, printed and put together this exhibition for the 3 day Congress in July.
(L-R) Yoppy Pieter, Tom Bradley, Prof Diana Lockwood, Dr Marlous Grijsen stand in front of the New Face for Leprosy section of the exhibition, with works by Tom Bradley and captions/interviews by Prof Lockwood. Photograph taken by Baim PanjiDiana, Tom, Yoppy and Marlous in front of Yoppy’s work ‘Letter from the Hills’ for which Marlous put together the text.Tom also exhibited a lot of his independent collaborative work shot from over the last 17 years.New Face for Leprosy Photos from India (2019) and Bangladesh (2023), including updates from Tom’s latest trip to Bangladesh in 2025.The exhibition was located on the first floor on the way to some of the lecture and conference rooms.Tom also exhibited photos he’d shot in Sulawesi in the 3 weeks prior to the ILC. Many people affected by leprosy from PerMaTa came to the ILC. Here is Nuni, one of the young volunteer advocates for PerMaTa with photos of herself. She got a relapse in reactions while attending the ILC.There was an opportunity for people to leave thoughts and comments on the exhibition on the side wall, and over the course of the three days many people engaged.People posed for photos with the exhibition throughout the conference.The photo of Taslima Akter, which she wrote on was blown up to 150x100cmTom exhibited dozens of polaroids which he’d shot and asked the person in the photo to write on. Though it is mainly people affected by leprosy, some are those who have dedicated their life to fighting the disease.More New Face for Leprosy photos from India and Bangladesh.
Congress attendees engage with the exhibition.Prof Diana Lockwood gave a keynote speech about the New Face for Leprosy project and campaign in the main conference hall.Prof Lockwood also spoke about research into ENL reactions, which Tom was also making a photostory about in Sulawesi.Looking out from the entrance of the ILC as the Congress started to wind down.The ILC ended with a big buffet and celebration with lots of dancing!
