Photographer Rankin creates Hospice UK portrait series of people with loved ones who have died

The series of eight portraits explores loss, grief and memory, bridging the gap between the past and the present. Playing with perspective, Rankin has given his subjects the opportunity to recreate a precious photo alongside those who they have lost.

Rubina Khalid, of Pudsey, Leeds, is among those who have taken part. She features in an image alongside her late parents Khalid Hussain and Muniza Begum and her story is appearing on Hospice UK’s website. The 60-year-old describes how she watched burials and rituals as a Pakistani Muslim girl and though she was taught that “death is a part of life”, it always “scared me to my core”.

Rubina lost her father in 2008 and her mother in 2014. “I realised after my father’s death, that you can’t relate with the experience of losing someone until you lose someone you really love,” she says.

She was very close to her father but describes how towards the end of his life, they had argued after a marriage he had encouraged her into fell apart and she struggled as a single parent with two children. After he died, she describes how any resentment she held turned into guilt.

“My father was a human being and all humans make mistakes and nine and a half times out of ten he had done good things for me…He considered all the plus points of the marriage and didn’t have bad intentions but it didn’t work out and people who have love marriages or marriages of their choice, they don’t necessarily work out either.”

Rubina describes herself as a spiritual person and explains how she would practice meditation, spiritual healing and regularly talk to her father, asking for forgiveness. It took around two years for her to come to terms with his passing and she now sees him as her guiding light.

His death encouraged her to work on her relationship with her mother. “I was thinking I don’t want to go through the same as I did with my father,” she says. “My mother passed away six years after my father and we were very close then. Those six years I tried to enjoy the most of our relationship.”

Hospice UK hopes the photos will portray that whilst death, dying and grief are universal experiences, they are completely unique. The series captures a diverse range of stories and experiences – all unified by the subjects’ determination to create a culture in which people are more open about their experiences and better able to support each other through death and grief.

“I didn’t talk to anyone at the time about what I was going through so I was dealing with that trauma within myself,” Rubina reflects. “When I was given the opportunity to have my portrait with my parents, for me it was a tribute to them.”

The photographic series has been released during Hospice UK’s #IRemember Week (November 7-13) when its Dying Matters campaign encourages people to bring memories of their loved ones to life by sharing stories and photos. The images will also be exhibited at the Death Festival in Brighton on November 11 and 12.

Rankin says: “Photographs are like time capsules, which means photography can be very powerful in dealing with death and loss. The family portrait or holiday snap allows you to emotionally connect through time and space with the person you have loved and lost. It keeps them alive in your memory, whilst also giving you something to memorialise them with. That’s why I love this project, it connects us to our emotions and everyone can be part of it."

Dying Matters is Hospice UK’s flagship campaign, which aims to create an open culture that talks about death and where people feel able to listen and support those who are planning for end of life, who are dying and who have been bereaved.

Sarah West, director of campaigns and communications, says: “How we remember loved ones is a uniquely personal part of grief, yet these photos will resonate with everyone who has lost someone important to them...We’re honoured to be sharing the experiences of our wonderful storytellers to open up a much-needed conversation about death, dying and bereavement.”

Visit www.hospiceuk.org/our-campaigns/dying-matters