What does friendship mean?
Friendship is the theme for our annual photographic award. Named ‘Friend-Ship’, this sensitive Award aims to recover the place and value of friendship.
The Award asks the following question:
What does friendship actually mean?
This is the question that celebrated photographer Grace Lambert-Phillips asked Londoners in the noble effort of opening up conversations about connection, but also to feelings of isolation. Grace approached people from all walks of life with whom she talked about the value of friendship. During such discussions she sure found a moment to capture something unique within each of person. The London-based photographer approached each photo-shoot session differently, adapting to the individual person. This meant that each sitter chose a specific location, setting and, of course, their own words to describe the meaning of ‘friendship’.
What makes this project unique is that each person expressed the ideas of friendship in their own unique way, some poetically others metaphorically. Fundamentally, it all came down to the same idea: friends are very important. Connections go far deeper than what appears at the surface.
In the process of completing her work Grace Lambert-Phillips also felt that she had made some connections with the very same people she was shooting with her iconic Leica camera.
“The work really felt authentic and backed up the friendship theory that we were trying to convey,” stated a proud Grace upon completing her work.
Grace Lambert-Phillip’s friendship photographs were showcased at City Hall to mark World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2019.
You can see the Friend-Ship portraits by clicking here
