I recently met and took the portrait of Melanie Bramwell- Popham, founding trustee of Head for Change, a charity supporting those living with brain injuries inflicted via sports. And the reason for this? Her husband, Alix Popham, was a professional rugby player from 1998- 2011, was capped 33 times by Wales, and was diagnosed with with early onset dementia in 2020 at the age of 40 years old. Doctors estimate his brain suffered over 100,000 sub-concussions over the course of his 14-year professional career. Alix is a member of a class action lawsuit against the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union and World Rugby for the injuries they sustained playing the game. Her portrait is part of my For the Love of the Game project, promote awareness and education of the risks of concussion.
What goes on in your head will be expressed on your face. In this instance, along with all those involved with For the Love of the Game, I asked Melanie Bramwell- Popham to think about what the topic of concussion meant to her, and this was her reaction.
Three frames, that is all I took. After seeing such an emotional response to my posing of “What does concussion mean to you?”, I simply did not have the heart or motivation to ask her to return to that emotional state; additional frames would have served no purpose.
It is easy to forget the impact a trauma, an illness, or a disability, has on those who are directly connected to the victim. In this instance Melanie Bramwell- Popham is that person and has known her husband, who has “no recollection of” his playing career, since they were both 11 years old.
