Friend-Ship screenshot competition!
Building on the success of last year’s mental health awareness campaign, Youmanity, launches their annual photography competition entitled ‘Friend-Ship'.
This is essentially a screenshot competition that wishes to reclaim the importance of friendship to help prevent suicide and mental health issues associated with loneliness and social distancing.
In 2020, the world went into lockdown. Many of us lost physical contact with loved ones, and the daily support of social workers, volunteers and medical staff. A situation of unparalleled proportions in which friends became our lifeline, developing important emotional connections.
We learned that social distance does not have to mean emotional isolation. Video calls have now become part of our lives, helping us through crises of all kinds. It is however a distressing fact that the incidence of suicide iincreases dramatically during the Christmas Season/New Years Day. Many are young members from the LGBT community - some just teenagers. According to Stonewall, in the UK alone, 13% LGBT aged 18-24, attempted to take their own life in the last year. Almost half of all trans people (46%) have thought about taking their own life and half of the LGBT community (52%) have experienced depression. Tragically, the World Health Organisation reports that a person takes their own life every 40 seconds, and many more attempt to do so.With isolation being the main reason for suicide, friendships and human connections are vitally important.
We want to reclaim the value of friendship by encouraging you to celebrate the importance of human connection through a screenshot!
Your photographic entry
Friend-Ship encourages you to submit a screenshot of your phone, tablet, computer used during a video call with family, friends, neighbours and/or anyone you made video-calls with. Screenshots don’t need to be of high resolution so long they capture a treasured connection between friends. Submission is free.
The Friend-Ship Photography Exhibition will showcase the winning enreies online from Feb 2021. The judges are looking for visual impact, originality, and sensitivity. The winning screenshot will be awarded £500 cash prize.
To upload your photographic submission is free - click HERE
Photo credit: Dragon Coworking
