How we began...

Lucie Akerman, then a Venue Manager at Artspace Lifespace, met Tina while holding a stick.

Tina asked, “What's that?”

Lucie replied, “A wand.”

A pause, a smile shared quickly turning into giggles.

"So, what is your next project?" Lucie asked Tina.

Tina had just held an exhibition of her photography at The Vestibules, Bristol, exhibiting portraits of 143 middle-aged women. It turned out some of the women she took portraits of were carers. Many of them shared, during their portrait session, that they were quite lonely and their mental health wasn't very good. They faced many challenges but held a lot of love for the person they cared for. Tina found this really intriguing, as she had no prior experience of being a carer.

"I want to take photographs of carers within their homes, caring for the people they love," Tina replies.

A short while later, Carina decides to be brave and go to an art workshop for carers. Carina has been a carer since she was very young, caring for her mum and then also her father. Carina walked into the room in Old Market, Bristol, and there sat just Lucie Akerman, who had stepped in to run the session as her colleague was unwell. They immediately started talking; no other carers attended, and no art was made. During the two-hour conversation they had, Carina mentioned that she was hoping to start writing down her carer friends' stories. Carina had recently finished her dissertation at university on Young Carers and felt there was very little written information about the lives of carers.

An email pinged in Carina's inbox a few weeks later:

"Hello Carina,

I hope you are well. I was talking to a photographer the other day who has started a project that focuses on carers. She is quite interested in creating a writing accompaniment to a set of portraits she will take over the next few months. You came to my mind when I was talking with her (I remember you mentioning some writing), and she asked me to forward the below on to you in the hope you might be interested in participating in some way in the new project.

Thanks

Lucie"

Carina and Tina now laugh at the wording, "over the next few months." As they met shortly after this email at a café in Fishponds, Bristol, on a dark and rainy day and within the hour together, they created Invisible Army. This was at the end of 2019. In 2023, we set up as a community interest company (CIC). Now, at the beginning of 2026, we have met and collected stories of over 65 carers, have lots count of the number of exhibitions curated, been on local and national news and aim to keep building this unique archive of carer' stories while raising the profile of unpaid care.