The IN-CITU exhibition presents photography created by older passengers living with dementia as they used public transport to travel around Greater Manchester in the UK.

The photographs feature data poetry, also created by the passengers, based on transcripts of their conversations as they travelled. These words have been rearranged to convey some of the motivations and meanings behind each image.

The exhibition aims to prompt audiences to reflect on the ways in which public transport can shape perspectives and experiences of ageing and dementia in our changing towns and cities.

The passengers’ images and poems speak to themes of technology, disability, development, infrastructure, inequality, social transformation, division and community. They reveal the importance of public transport as a medium through which people engage with and sometimes disengage from the world around them, for better and for worse.

Changing perspectives

People with dementia have historically often been dismissed as having little valuable insight into their own lives. Work like IN-CITU is intended to dispel such stereotypes by disproving them.

With the right support, people living with dementia can creatively share their own stories and powerfully communicate things that are important to them.

This work can help to focus our attention on some of the challenges that people with dementia can face in daily life, especially regarding things such as public transport that many of us often take for granted.

IN-CITU is on display at Brunel Square, central Bath, from Wednesday 11 to Tuesday 24 June 2025.

This photo of Wythenshawe bus station was taken by Joyce. She lost her driving licence when she was diagnosed with dementia, so she relied on the bus to do her shopping.

Joyce was mostly able to get around by herself. However, when she entered the station, she paused and became confused. Management had recently installed digital displays and reduced staff hours. As information flashed across the screens above, Joyce was suddenly frozen and began mumbling about bus numbers and bays.

Her grayscale photograph echoes her own sense of desaturation in that moment, with her recorded words overlaid in transparent text. Without adequate support, the replacement of services with digital information can disable people with dementia who are otherwise independent.

Nicole took this photo of a construction site under Stockport’s railway arches. Once the world’s biggest viaduct, and still among the largest existing brick structures, these arches represent intense development during the industrial revolution. Greater Manchester is again experiencing a construction boom. Luxury skyscrapers are shooting up as technology and media industries grow.

For older residents, the new developments can evoke mixed feelings. They welcome investment in places that have struggled following industrial decline, but resent being pushed from their communities by rising costs.

People with dementia can rely on familiar landmarks for navigation, so large-scale redevelopment can undermine their independence. Nicole’s photo prompts us to reflect on who benefits and who loses amid Manchester’s modern economic miracle.

On a chilly wet morning outside Bolton, Paul breathed heavily as he leant on a metal pole, half buried in a hedge. These 'flag and pole' bus stops are common because they are cheap to manufacture, install and maintain. However, for people like Paul, they can be so unaccommodating that they dissuade people from travelling.

Paul’s local church held a fundraiser to install benches but only made enough money for one bench. He could see it on the other side of the road. Paul’s photo asks us why, in one of the wealthiest cities on earth, older people with impaired mobility are bracing themselves against the cold rain with only a metal pole for support.

Stanley lived in Manchester’s most affluent suburb and a short walk from the Metrolink, the UK’s most extensive tram network. Most people with dementia are aged above 65 and are therefore entitled to free transport with an older people’s travel pass. However, to use the Metrolink, travel pass holders pay a £10 uplift fee.

Stanley felt that it was well worth paying extra to avoid having to travel through the notoriously crowded Fallowfield district, home to many of Greater Manchester’s 120,000 university students. Stanley felt sorry for the students and was glad he had attended university in the 1960s rather than the 2020s. Circumventing Fallowfield, the tram offered Stanley a quiet and spacious trip to the city centre.

Liz hated dirt. In this photo, she documented a discarded banana skin as she travelled into Bury.

Liz felt that the poor condition of local transport reflected bigger negative changes. She believed that passengers were more careless with littering and that operators were more careless with maintenance. This angered and saddened Liz, for whom banana skins, muddy seats and empty cans all represented a society in decline.

She had several conversations with other passengers, berating modern disrepair and reminiscing about better times. In this way, litter became an opportunity for Liz to connect with people. A keen socialite before her dementia diagnosis, Liz found herself increasingly isolated during the Covid-19 pandemic and now relished even fleeting exchanges for strangers.

Salford is at the heart of a changing Greater Manchester. As its university has grown rapidly and its quayside has become a media hub, Salford’s built environment, its resident population and its ways of life have all been transformed.

At the outer edge of the borough, Barbara did not feel she was benefitting from the changes, and she was irritated by some of their consequences. She was nostalgic for the stricter social structures of her youth, where kids respected their elders, the police maintained order, and cyclists obeyed traffic rules.

That last part was particularly important to Barbara. She was incensed by cyclists running red lights and mounting the pavement, which made her fearful of walking near the road.

When the government proposed moving rail ticketing entirely online in 2023, the public consultation received the most responses in history. The policy was quickly abandoned. Cash fares can be a memory aid for people with dementia, who often have stories of accidentally spending large amounts using contactless, and staffed offices can help passengers navigate complicated transport systems.

Judy was normally a bus user, paying drivers in cash and asking for assistance. Taken during a rare tram journey, the photo shows the payment machine she was struggling to use. She remarked that her daughter was now banking on her behalf following branch closures. When everyday services exclude people with dementia, family members often pick up additional responsibilities.

The bus out of Rochdale was so busy that Marilyn was forced to make a rare trip upstairs. Double-decker buses can sieve passengers. Older people, those with impaired mobility and parents with prams might remain below, while the able bodied and unencumbered climb upstairs.

When this bus reached the local college, most passengers stood up, including the teenager next to Marilyn. He silently pushed past her as she shook her head and tutted loudly.

Buses can facilitate important social interactions for older passengers with dementia, but they can also reinforce social divides, such as those between young and old, able and disabled. Marilyn's photo reflects some of the promises and perils of public transport as a communal space.