There are some opportunities you say yes to because they make business sense. Others you say yes to because something in you knows they matter.

For photographer Nick Johnson, becoming Imaging Partner for ellenor’s Bear Hunt art trail, this was one of those opportunities.

This summer, ellenor, the local hospice charity supporting adults, children and families across North Kent and Bexley will bring brightly painted bears to Dartford as part of a free public art trail inspired by the much loved children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

It will be the first project of its kind for ellenor, and the first large-scale public art trail ever staged across the borough of Dartford.

Nick Johnson has spent almost four decades behind a camera. He started at 16 in a darkroom, developing black-and-white film for local newspapers, long before photography moved from film to digital. Since then, he has photographed theatres, news, public events, businesses, portraits and construction sites.

So it says something that, after 39 years, this somehow feels different. Opportunities that feel genuinely new, he says, are rare. This is one of them.

He has learned that the best pictures are rarely the obvious ones. They are the moments you cannot plan. People laughing, a look on someone’s face, the light falling perfectly, a small detail nobody else noticed, something unexpected. The moments that feel real.

Maybe that is why he wanted to be involved in the art trail.

Yes, it will be colourful and eye-catching. But that was never the main reason. What mattered more to him was being involved in something positive. Something creative that could bring people together, start conversations about hospice care, and help people better understand what their local hospice is there to do for families when it matters most.

This summer, bears will appear across Dartford in unexpected places. Families will explore the town together. Children will race towards their favourites. People will stop to take photographs. Others may come across a sculpture unexpectedly and find themselves smiling.

But beneath the colour and excitement is something deeper. A chance to start conversations about hospice care, help people see hospices differently, understand the support ellenor provides and raise vital funds for local families.

For Nick, that sense of surprise matters.

He speaks about the joy of seeing unusual things in everyday places and the way they can change the mood around them. A giant lamp outside an office building. A sofa by the roadside. Something odd and completely out of place.

That, he believes, is part of the power of public art. But what matters most to him is not just what people see but the wider benefit it brings encouraging community spirit, creating a vibrant town centre, and supporting local families.

Through years working in local media, Nick had seen ellenor’s place in the community and the difference hospice care makes when families need support most. He also knows many people still carry the wrong idea of what a hospice is.

“People don’t go to a hospice to die,” he said. “They go there to live.”

It is a line he returns to more than once.

Hospices are often spoken about only in the context of death when in reality they are places of expert care, dignity, compassion and support. They help people live as well as possible for as long as possible. They support families, create space for precious moments, and stand beside people when life feels most uncertain.

Nick hopes the trail can help more people see that.

Because every bear is more than a sculpture. It is an invitation to stop, engage, ask questions and better understand the role hospice care plays in the life of a community.

“As you get older, you start thinking about giving something back,” he said. “I’ve had a long career. I’ve had opportunities. It feels good to use what I do for something that matters.”

There is something powerful in that. Businesses are often asked to support community projects in terms of branding, visibility or return on investment. But many say yes for simpler reasons than that. They care about the place where they live. They care what happens to local people. They want to use their skills or resources in a way that leaves something good behind.

That is what Nick brings to the trail.

As Imaging Partner, he will help capture the story of the trail from first brushstroke to final farewell. The artists transforming blank sculptures into works of imagination. The excitement before launch day. Families discovering the bears for the first time. Children pointing, laughing and pulling parents closer. Friends taking photographs beside a favourite design. Conversations beginning where there had been none before.

He is especially looking forward to seeing children encounter the trail.

“You never know what might spark something in a child,” he said. “It might be excitement, imagination, creativity.”

And when the final photographs are taken and the bears move on, he hopes what remains will be more than memories of a good summer.

He hopes people will remember the joy of the art trail. The sense of community it created. The conversations it started. And that when life changes in the hardest possible way, their local hospice is there. The trail is inspired by We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, and the animated film adaptation.