A close-up black-and-white portrait of an older African American man with short hair and a grayed beard, wearing a dark shirt, looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.

The Courage Of

About the Project

This is a project about people who have made deliberate choices: to dedicate themselves to something difficult, to pursue mastery without guarantee of reward, to show up every day for something they believe in. Not heroes in the conventional sense. Quiet champions.

Each chapter is a portrait series built around one person and one discipline. The subject sits for photographs and speaks at length about their practice, their motivation, and what courage means to them in their daily life.

The full interviews and extended portrait series will be published in the accompanying book. What follows here is a single exchange from each conversation.

2025 — ongoing

The Courage of: Aikido, West Yorkshire, 2025 — ongoing

Some disciplines teach you technique. Aikido teaches you something harder: how to fall, and how to stand back up again. This portrait session documents Philip’s's relationship with courage; not as an abstract concept, but as a daily physical practice.

Philip, If I tell you "Vital Courage" — what comes to your mind?

"Vital is connected to life, therefore it must happen. You have to have courage. There is a time in life when you must be courageous. It's about life."

The Courage of: Music, West Yorkshire, 2025 — ongoing

Herbie, you are a professional drummer. Does it take courage to be one?

"Yes and no. For me, the choice of becoming a professional drummer followed the refusal to do any other job. Any normal job. When I left school I could not think of anything else but becoming a professional musician."

Does your drum kit give you courage in life?

"Playing the drums, opening yourself to emotions, can be very difficult. I lost a very close friend when I was at university and that same week I had an exam. Every time I played the drum kit that week it was the hardest thing, because you are opening yourself up — especially in an improvising setting, you are opening yourself up to conveying an emotion. I found it very difficult. But very useful as well."

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The Courage of: Comedy, West Yorkshire, 2025 — ongoing

There is a particular kind of courage that operates in plain sight and yet goes largely unnoticed. Anthony J Brown has been practising it for decades.

The British relationship with comedy is unlike anything I have encountered elsewhere. In this country, the ability to make a room laugh signals intelligence, self-awareness, an understanding of the unspoken rules.

The ability to make a room laugh, here, is to belong.