Cynthia, oil on canvas, 2025.

Cynthia, oil on canvas, 56 × 51 cm, 2025.

Cynthia is a portrait taken from a photobooth picture rescued from Hackney in the 1980s. After extensive digging through old photographs in antique shops around Hackney, I gathered many faces that had been lost to Hackney's past and Cynthia is amongst the works that have shone from this project. Cynthia, in a black-and-white nurses uniform (which I imagined to be pink), stares at the camera with a stoicism that speaks of the NHS in the 1980s. Her luminosity shines through, making this peace truly unique. The viewer is invited to imagine who 'Cynthia' might have been.