Photography, Identity and Complex Care at Heanton Nursing Home

Some people spend their lives searching for ordinary comforts like a favourite song on the radio, the warmth of a cup of tea or the sight of birds in the garden. Others spend their lives searching for the edge of the world.

Martin Baker was always drawn towards the latter.

Long before Martin moved into Heanton Nursing Home, he had travelled across some of the most remote and unpredictable places on earth. Antarctica. Namibia. Morocco. India. The Arctic. Places filled with mystery, cultures and incredible wildlife few people ever witness with their own eyes.

The camera became part of how he understood the world around him. There are photographs Martin has taken that most people would struggle to imagine capturing themselves.

The Boy Who Never Stopped Persevering

Martin grew up in Coventry alongside his two sisters and from early childhood developed a resilience that would shape the rest of his life.

At just nine years old, he was diagnosed with diabetes, something that brought challenges and unpredictability from an age where most children are still learning who they are. But those closest to him describe Martin as deeply determined, someone who persevered through almost everything life placed in front of him.

Martin was known for being naturally practical, someone who understood how things fitted together and how to solve problems. Photography had already found its way into his life much earlier through his father, who was a keen photographer himself.

Chasing Extraordinary Moments

Martin travelled extensively throughout his life, often choosing experiences many people would shy away from. His family still describe him affectionately as a “daredevil,” and many of the stories he tells seem to carry that same restless sense of adventure.

One of the photographs he remains proud of, is a rhino charging directly towards him. He loved all of his photographs of animals, each one as magnificent and unique as the next.

 

 

 

 

He also spent his time aboard an ice breaker in Antarctica. For three weeks, Martin camped in the cold and travelled through enormous waves reaching twenty feet high! While many around him became violently seasick. Somehow, Martin remained entirely unaffected.

Fear rarely seemed to stop him from moving towards experience.

Even a car accident caused by a diabetic hypo became, in Martin’s telling, less a trauma and more another extraordinary story. After crashing upside down into a tree, he somehow walked away physically unharmed, something he still speaks about with pride.

Yet behind the adventure and humour, there has always been sensitivity too. During his time in Antarctica, despite being an avid smoker, Martin completely stopped smoking for the duration of the trip because he did not want to pollute the untouched environment around him.

The Journey into Complex Care and moving into Heanton Nursing Home

Today, Martin lives at Heanton Nursing Home with bipolar disorder and like many people living with changing cognitive needs, there are moments where frustration can rise quickly, particularly if he struggles to remember something he wants to express.

And at Heanton Nursing Home, these moments are not approached as behaviour to control or correct.

The team understand that underneath frustration is often emotion, confusion, fear or simply the distress of losing hold of a thought that mattered. Rather than drawing attention to what Martin cannot remember, conversations are often gently guided back towards the subjects that continue to bring him confidence. And photography becomes one of those places.

Today, his photographs from those journeys cover the walls of his room. Wildlife frozen in single moments of intensity. Memories captured from a life lived with enormous curiosity and determination.

When the team sit with Martin and begin talking about his photography, they often notice an immediate change in him.

“You can see him light up,” one member of the team shared.

The Comfort Found in Familiar Things

There is comfort too in the quieter parts of Martin’s routine now.

Strong coffee each morning. Cigarettes throughout the day. Long naps whenever he feels tired. Walking around the home chatting to those around him and making himself known when he wants something.

He is sociable, communicative and enjoys attention and conversation. There is no pressure for Martin to fit into anyone else’s routine.

Because at Heanton, complex care is not simply about supporting clinical needs, it’s about understanding how somebody experiences the world around them, what helps them feel safe and the parts of themselves that deserve protecting.

And for Martin, much of that still lives within stories of his travels and the animals he saw. Within the photographs covering his walls. Within memories of adventure.