Ad Astra is an exhibition of photographs by Anastasia Taylor-Lind, exploring the diverse roles of women within the Royal Air Force (RAF) today. Meaning ‘to the stars’, Ad Astra takes its name from the RAF’s motto Per Ardua Ad Astra: ‘Through adversity to the stars’. 

As one of the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commissions, Anastasia spent time on RAF bases in 2024, photographing serving personnel. Her engaging photographs offer new insight and thoughtfully capture the diversity of roles currently undertaken by women in the RAF today. The project also sought to capture the various ranks held by women in the RAF today; selected photographs for the exhibition include University Air Squadron trainee pilots and Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Suraya Marshall. 

Our commission had a clear objective – to capture women in the RAF - but the artistic medium and artist were not pre-determined at the start. Anastasia was identified as the right artist for the commission due to her vast experience in photographing women and war. 

It was important to the project that the commissioned artist shared an understanding of the importance of ensuring the visibility and agency of women in contemporary narratives of conflict. Anastasia has documented the conflict in Ukraine for over 10 years, exploring the impact of war on families (predominately women and children, with men conscripted) a few kilometres from the frontline. 

The Ad Astra project took inspiration from the groundbreaking women who served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during the Second World War. As a Battle of Britain commemorative museum, Bentley Priory Museum remembers and shares the histories of those whose lives were lost and those whose lives were impacted by this significant period of conflict. These included the women who served within the WAAF, whose lives were transformed when they undertook new roles, previously reserved for men. 

Initial hesitation about female efficiency and competency was diminished, with women excelling in diverse jobs, including plotting enemy aircraft in the Filter Room and Operations Room at RAF Bentley Priory. 

The Official Secrets Acts that many WAAFs signed restricted their contribution from being shared, understood or acknowledged for years.  Thankfully, however, some official wartime photographs documented the new roles women undertook, and these are now held within the IWM’s incredible photographic collection. A selection of these archival images was identified to display alongside Anastasia’s contemporary photographs within the Ad Astra exhibition, making poignant connections between past and present representations of women serving in the RAF. 

Ad Astra launched in March 2025 as part of International Women’s Month. The exhibition’s opening provided further opportunities to make connections between the past and present, with serving RAF attending the opening alongside Vera, a 104-year-old WAAF veteran who served during the Second World War in Coastal Command. 

As Anastasia showed Vera around the exhibition and talked through the photographs she had taken, they paused at an image of a heavily pregnant RAF Medical Officer and Vera reflected that in her day pregnant WAAFs were ‘shown the door’ – a stark but important reminder of the progress that has been made over the last 80 years.

Twelve of Anastasia’s incredible photographs were selected for display within the exhibition – a combination of candid, observational images and portraits.  The images were selected in relation to what they represented individually, and collectively. 

The selection of archival images for the exhibition was challenging, with the IWM’s extensive photographic collection being the greatest sweet shop that a Museum could have the privilege to choose from! We are incredibly grateful to the IWM for the opportunity to display archival images alongside Anastasia’s contemporary photographs. 

The project successfully made connections between past and present representations of women in the RAF and gave a new insight into roles and ranks of women within the contemporary RAF – the first of the British military forces to open all roles to women in 2017.

As the WAAF during the Second World War were the generation that began to smash away at the glass ceiling, fighting for equality in opportunity, jobs and pay within the military services, the women Anastasia captured in 2024 represent the next generation of female pioneers within the RAF. 

Our collection is utilised to ensure the visibility of women in the history of conflict and inspire future generations with their stories. Through the Ad Astra project, we have had an important opportunity to capture the experience of women in the military today, ensuring their continued visibility in narratives of conflict. 

Currently on display within the Museum’s temporary exhibition gallery, Anastasia’s photographs will later move permanently to a gallery space which links the Museum’s galleries and its Learning Centre, accessible to the thousands of children who visit the Museum annually as part of schools and families. My 4-year-old daughter recently asked me if women could be firefighters. The image of the RAF firefighter in Ad Astra succinctly answers this question and hopefully challenges some of gendered visuals that children are subliminally exposed to. 

We are incredibly grateful to Anastasia for her warmth and creativity, and to the RAF personnel who generously gave their time to the project and agreed to be photographed. It has been a privilege to be one of over twenty IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commissions.