Ayesha Jones is a UK based documentary photographer working at the intersection of health, identity and belonging. “I think I describe myself as a visual storyteller,” she explains.  Her longterm project, The Backbone, grew from that instinct and has evolved into one of the most significant bodies of work addressing scoliosis, identity, and resilience.

Since its launch in May 2025, The Backbone has been published by GRAIN Projects (designed by Chris Neophytou, and supported by Arts Council England.) The project debuted publicly with a book launch at Ikon Gallery, and has been endorsed by the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital which “provided valuable support for both me and my work, playing a significant role in the development of this project,” Ayesha explains.

Created in collaboration with clinicians and participants, the work positions itself at the intersection of art and healthcare — amplifying a vital visual discourse around female health, spinal difference, and collaborative storytelling.

“With photography I am able to access a side of myself and delve into deep ideas and communicate deep ideas without actually having to voice them myself.”

This collaborative approach emerged from a deeply personal place. Diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis at the age of 12–13, Ayesha began documenting her body’s changes as a way of making sense of its shifts. “I was always documenting the progression of it,” she recalls, “but it wasn’t necessarily for a project. It was just for my own understanding of how my body was changing.”

As she progressed through university, her understanding of photography evolved beyond its technical capabilities, becoming a method of social critique and reflection. Her dissertation explored the representation of Black women in fashion photography, revealing how visual narratives shape perceptions and selfunderstanding. “I realised how powerful images were at forming public perception and misconception,” she explains.

This critical inquiry laid the groundwork for her first significant project, Imperfection — a visual diary combining family album photographs, modelling images, and selfportraits, unpacking her own identity and challenging reductive narratives about young womanhood.

From personal experience to collective storytelling

The “Imperfection” project became a turning point. It wasn’t just a personal exploration, but a critical examination of representation, identity, and self-perception. “I was looking at how I’d become this young woman who saw herself as or objectified herself in certain ways,” she explains. The project became a visual dialogue about the complex experiences of young womanhood, challenging existing narratives and personal misconceptions. The project incorporated family album photographs, modeling images, and self-portraits. It became a way to deconstruct her own perceptions and societal expectations.

A pivotal moment came at 23, when she underwent spinal fusion surgery. “Because of my experience with Imperfection, I now saw what I was going through as a potential exploration and project,” she reflects. The link between physical health and personal identity became increasingly profound, prompting questions about how medical experience, neurological differences (such as her later ADHD diagnosis), and even epigenetics shaped her body and her sense of belonging. “I was like, what is going on in my body, in my mind, and has this got a connection to developing scoliosis as well?” she explains.

This curiosity led to a deeper examination of environmental and inherited influences, prompting the expansion of The Backbone to include the stories and archives of ten other women, reshaping the project into a communal reflection. “I think it was really important for this project, especially if we’re talking about women’s health, to go outside of my own story and connect it with other women’s experiences,” she explains.

“”The role of archives and collaboration in Ayesha Jones’ practice

At its heart, The Backbone is rooted in process. The project incorporates interviews, allowing the women’s conversations to inform both visual and thematic elements. Family archives play a crucial role in her work. “I think family albums are the foundation of everything,” she says. “It’s hard to know where you’re going if you don’t understand where you’re coming from.”

The Backbone also draws upon Ayesha’s own medical archives — photographs, documents and memorabilia — and weaves these together with intimate contemporary portraits and interviews with ten women living with idiopathic scoliosis. “I want to contribute to conversations which are already happening and get people thinking on these themes,” she says. “It was really important to go outside of my own story and connect it with other women’s experiences. We’re all going to have different journeys with scoliosis, but there are common threads that connect our stories.”

The resulting visual narrative is a nuanced, multivoiced record of resilience and belonging, where clinical experience meets collective identity. Ayesha’s work is inherently activist, driven by a desire to contribute to ongoing conversations about health, identity, and bodily experience. “I’ve always been quite rebellious and activist-minded,” she notes. “I want to contribute to conversations which are already happening and get people thinking about these themes.”

While the images themselves are an arresting visual exploration of the condition, for Ayesha the project is about more than scoliosis: it’s about the neglect and mystification of the female body in modern medicine. “The project appears to be about scoliosis on the surface but it’s actually about medical misogyny and the lack of research on the workings of the female body and how that has led to many women suffering, being misdiagnosed and even dying to this day.”

New research suggests a hormonal imbalance could be a contributing factor and for Jones, that’s where the inspiration for the project came from, using her own experience to explore why so many female specific health conditions have no known cause or no effective treatment options. “I wanted to know what was really going on in my body and how my hormones were affecting my health.”

Today, Ayesha’s practice operates beyond the boundaries of a single body of work. She maintains a diverse practice — running photography workshops, creating a popup studio, and collaborating with institutions such as the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. At its core, her work explores how personal experience shapes identity and belonging, and how the camera can become a transformative tool for understanding ourselves and others. “Photography allows you to see things in different times,” she reflects. “It’s quite magical to be able to see connections that bring two moments in time together.” Through The Backbone, Ayesha invites viewers to witness that magic — and to understand that our bodies are not just physical entities, but complex narratives of experience, resilience, and ongoing transformation.

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