The MORE Project: A Journey in Pictures
The MORE Journey
The MORE Project has evolved over several years through a series of interconnected activities, collaborations, and community spaces.
The project began with online involvement and engagement activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, when researchers and community members explored how digital spaces could support participation, connection, and dialogue around maternity experiences.
This developed into community listening events, peer researcher training, and participatory workshops bringing together women from diverse backgrounds across South London. Through a series of Photovoice workshops, participants created photographs, captions, and reflections exploring their experiences of pregnancy and motherhood.
The project then evolved into collaborative analysis sessions, public engagement activities, exhibitions, and creative dissemination outputs, including Born from the Heart, Photos of the Soul, a participatory exhibition co-curated with photographers, peer researchers, and researchers.
As the project continues to grow, MORE aims to support ongoing conversations about relational maternity care, inequalities, lived experience, and how participatory approaches can contribute to meaningful change within maternity systems.
Key moments from the MORE project, 2023–2026
The MORE (Maternity Opportunities for Research Engagement) project began in 2023 as a one-off listening event exploring experiences of maternity. Over the past three years, it has grown into a collaborative and evolving initiative, shaped within a safe and supportive environment. Mothers, researchers, and peer researchers have been working together – meeting in person, online, in formal and informal settings – to share insights and develop ideas using participatory methods.
The result is an exhibition of photographs, reflections, and messages that aim to capture and share diverse experiences of maternity.
This timeline traces the journey of the MORE project, highlighting the key moments that shaped its development over time. Each step is illustrated through photographs that capture not only what we did, but how we worked together – offering a visual insight into the relationships, reflections, and experiences that brought this project to life.
OUR FIRST LUNCH Myatt’s Field North Community Centre
We came together - mothers, researchers and peer researchers - to talk, listen, and ensure that research is inclusive and meaningful. Through creative and participatory methods, we fostered a safe space and started building relationships grounded in trust and openness.
Photovoice Training King’s College London
We explored a range of participatory methods to enhance and deepen our research, and support more meaningful, engaging meetings. We chose to try the Photovoice method, beginning with a collaborative training session where researchers and peer researchers learned together about the history, methodology, and practical application of Photovoice.
Photovoice LUNCH Myatt’s Field North Community Centre
Our ‘Introduction to Photovoice’ session with our participants made us laugh, cry and learn new skills together. At the same time, new ways of communicating began to open up between us. We discovered that sometimes it is easier to tell moments from our lives through pictures – suddenly small, initially insignificant details made our maternity stories come to life.
KERN SHORTLIST King’s College London – The Strand
We were absolutely delighted that our project was shortlisted for the KERN King’s Engaged Research Awards in the Participatory Research (Local) category. It was truly humbling to be recognised alongside such inspiring pieces of work in public and community engagement.
‘Experts by Experience: Who Knows Best?’ Science Gallery
Our project was showcased as part of the Experts by Experience exhibition at the Science Gallery. Beyond being a wonderful recognition of our work, it offered us the chance to revisit our journey so far - reflecting on what we had achieved together and starting to plan the next steps for this ongoing collaboration.
Photovoice LUNCH Myatt’s Field North Community Centre
Finally, the moment arrived for us to start taking our own photos! In this session, we explored various aspects of photography, learning about technical elements as well as the creative expression. After spending time capturing images indoors and outside, we began to find deeper meaning in our photographs.
ETHICAL APPROVAL
This moment marked an important step for the project, as we successfully received full ethical approval from the King’s College London Health Faculties Research Ethics Subcommittee to undertake the Photovoice project as part of a research study.
Photovoice LUNCH Myatt’s Field North Centre
A few weeks after taking our photographs - both collectively and individually – we came together again to caption and title them. The session was filled with joyful, moving, and at times deeply touching moments as each participant shared the stories, thoughts, and emotions behind their images. Everyone contributed to shaping the titles and wording of the captions, making it a truly collaborative process.
Photovoice LUNCH Myatt’s Field North Community Centre
Our final session was dedicated to reflecting on our work and selecting the photos that felt most significant and meaningful. We also discussed possible next steps and began imagining how to share our project more widely. Naturally, the next chapter had to include an exhibition - showcasing our photos and the stories behind them!
KERN SHORTLIST King’s College London – The Strand
We were delighted to be shortlisted yet again for the KERN King’s Engaged Research Awards in the Collaboration (Local) category, as part of the Experts by Experience: Who Knows Best? project.
Photovoice Exhibition Planning ZOOM
Our first online meeting! It is definitely not the same as being together in a room, but we were happy to be reunited again to co-design and co-produce our first exhibition!
Photovoice Exhibition Taster ORTUS
Finally, we got to see our photos in print! As part of the conference Developing Holistic Approaches to Maternity and Perinatal Mental Health, organised by the ARC South London Maternity and Perinatal Mental Health theme and Maternal and Perinatal Systems and Policy (MAPS) Research Group at King’s College London. We had the wonderful opportunity to showcase our work to an audience of more than 100 service users, health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and charities and see the impact that our work can have in person. Several of the researchers, peer researchers and participants also had the opportunity to talk about the process during the conference.
KERN SHORTLIST King’s College London – The Strand
We were thrilled to be shortlisted for the KERN King’s Engaged Research Awards for the third year running, in the Participatory Research (Local) category.
Co-analysis Session King’s College London – Guy's Campus & 6 March 2026 Cosy Café – Penge
In preparation of our upcoming exhibition, we held two co-analysis workshops with the small curators’ group, using a simple visual framework to reflect on the images. The aim was to identify and consolidate the themes that had emerged through the process of our work together.
Exhibition Planning
A very exciting day for us when we gathered at the Science Gallery to view the space and make some practical decisions about the exhibition and the launch. It was fantastic to see our exhibition mentioned among the upcoming events at the Gallery!
Born from the Heart, Photos of the Soul - Photovoice Exhibition Science Gallery
And here we are today, sharing our journey with all of you! We invite you to look beyond clinical encounters and explore the wider experiences that shape maternity journeys - including family, work, migration and community. Some of our participants have also taken on the role of co-curators, ensuring the exhibition remains a truly collaborative and co-produced project.