Blog

Words by Prof Diana Lockwood

The New Face for Leprosy project has had an excellent showing at the tropical medicine institute in Munich, in Dec 2024. The idea for a photo exhibition was developed from a conversation between Camilla Rothe and Diana Lockwood when they were both teaching on the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene course in Nagasaki University, Japan (in conjunction with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) which has students from around the world. Both are photographers interested in capturing medical pictures and stories. Camilla did the DTMH London in 2005. The Munich department has regular changing photography exhibitions organised by the department around different themes and with a small budget. This year the exhibition featured photos and stories from the New Face for leprosy project (https://newfaceleprosy.com/) with planning done by discussions with Camilla, Tom Bradley and Judith Eckstein, using the New Face for Leprosy ideas showing that leprosy affected people have normal lives and jobs and families.

There were 31 photos from India and Bangladesh in the central locations and in doctors office, taken by Tom and the stories about each person been written by Diana. The event was opened with a seminar on leprosy. Prof Michael Hoelscher, LMU Munich institute for infectious diseases and tropical medicine gave the opening words. Diana Lockwood talked about the need for new images and stories for leprosy patients and organisations working with leprosy affected patients.

Tom Bradley also spoke on this, and different ways of photographing. Dr August Stich from Wurzburg university hospital and DAHW German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief talked about leprosy, Saskia Kreibich from DAHW German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief talked about the need for new tools to diagnose leprosy, Prof. Gisela Bretzel, head of the microbiology lab at the institute talked about the challenges of using laboratory tests to diagnose leprosy. The tropical institute is now its own institute within Munich university and this event celebrated this.

In a larger reception area about 100 people listened to talks from Diana Lockwood about how she became interested in leprosy as a teenager volunteering in a leprosy hospital in India in 1975.  There are still challenges in diagnosing and treating patients and despite there being effective free antibiotics, patients and their families experience stigma. Tom talked about photographing people with leprosy and showed how the project had developed with photos and stories.

Evelyne Leandro, a Brazilian woman who lives in Berlin talked about her experience of being diagnosed and treated with leprosy in Germany. Her diagnosis was delayed because doctors in Germany  rarely see patients with leprosy. She was treated in Berlin and had adverse events from the antibiotics, she experienced inflammatory complications called reactions. She also had pain in her joints as part of her disease. She now works with DAHW to help promoting the diagnosis of leprosy and to reduce stigma of the disease. She has written a book about having leprosy, The Living Death. She talked about the need for photos to make the diseases less stimatising.

People looked at the photos and Tom and Diana talked about how the photos were taken, one woman in a wheelchair had been given a place in homes for people with disability in Bangladesh, her neighbour is a young man with a spinal injury and they help each other.

The stories were accessible using QR code scanning so people could hear the stories on their phones. People were very engaged with the photos and stories and we talked enthusiastically and taking the pictures and getting the stories.

We then enjoyed walking round the Christmas Markets over the weekend, buying decorations and drinking gluhwein.

Diana Lockwood

Jan 2025

The Living Death

Evelyne Leandro

The Struggle with a long forgotten disease.

A diary from todays Berlin

2014 self published