“Hope is the most important thing.”

What would it mean if you could catch a glimpse of your future and experience memories that have yet to be lived?

This is the premise of “Gallery of Hope,” a generative AI-centered campaign that highlights people living with incurable secondary breast cancer and what time means for them, launched by Breast Cancer Now, the U.K.’s leading breast cancer research and support charity.

Secondary, or metastatic, breast cancer happens when cancer cells from the breast move to other areas of the body. In the U.K., around 61,000 individuals are living with this condition.

The campaign highlights the importance of continuing research that can lead to more treatment options, which in turn can give those living with secondary breast cancer more time.

“Gallery of Hope,” created by the agency BMB, uses photography and artificial intelligence to provide campaign participants—including Louise Hudson, Mel Khaled and Nina Lopes—with a glimpse into the lives they feel the illness is taking from them. It offers them a sense of hope and something to look forward to beyond their diagnoses.

Photographer Jillian Edelstein captured the trio and the other seven participants in a studio. The images were then used to train AI models to generate unique images that retain the photographer’s style, as well as poses, facial expressions and likeness in portraits depicting future scenarios.

For example, Hudson's AI-powered photo shows her performing a solo during a presentation of "The Nutcracker" at the annual Chelsea Ballet School performance. 

Khaled is photographed alongside her husband, hosting an opening party for a wellness retreat they intend to establish in Cyprus.

Lopes, who was photographed with her daughter, shared her intentions of bringing her to Japan to enjoy sushi and bubble tea. In the photographs, she is seen with her daughter dressed in kimonos, mesmerized by Japan’s cherry blossom trees.

“I’m so happy to be able to take part in the ‘Gallery of Hope’ to help those with secondary breast cancer visualize the future moments they hope to see,” said Edelstein.

BMB collaborated with Untold Studios for the AI component of the campaign.

“It’s so important that we use AI for good, in this case to raise awareness of Breast Cancer Now’s incredible work,” said Simon Legrand, real-time supervisor at Untold Studios. “The aim of this project is to provide a sense of hope for people experiencing or affected by breast cancer, and we're proud to have played a role in bringing it to life.”

The campaign features an eight-minute short film in which the three women share their diagnoses and reflect on their future, as well as what the campaign means to them in the present. Short films were also created for each individual whose portrait was highlighted, directed by documentary filmmaker Jessie Ayles. 

Here is a short cutdown of the main doc:

An exhibition with the photographs took place at the Saatchi Gallery in London on March 13–14. The photos are available to view until the end of March through an online gallery hosted on Breast Cancer Now's social channels and feature a total of 10 participants and their future moments.

This marks the latest collaboration between BMB, founded in 2005, and Breast Cancer Now. BMB has developed several successful campaigns for the charity, including the award-winning “The Chat” and “Stories of Secondary,” as well as “Real Talk,” which aimed to promote open discussion about breast cancer.

“We’re so proud to be continuing our work with Breast Cancer Now in a new campaign that gives people living with secondary breast cancer a unique platform through which to share their hopes for the future,” said Bianca Eglinton, creative director at BMB.  

Eglinton added that she hopes the campaign can continue to contribute to the mission of encouraging people to talk about breast cancer more openly.