Shine A Light photography competition

WHY SHINE A LIGHT ON AGEING?

Here at The Forrest Centre, we think acknowledging our older people is long overdue. In fact, we think most people avoid thinking about getting older altogether and it’s time we put a stop to that. It’s time to shine a light on ageing.

As an aged care provider, we have the privilege of working with older people every day and know that ageing not only brings meaning to life, but that older people are an incredibly important part of our community.

Older people work. They volunteer. They have interests and hobbies. They laugh, they love… just like any other age group.

We also know that older people are far from a single, homogenous group, with perspectives and experiences as diverse as the individuals themselves. If you think about older people as those older than 65 years of age (a typical reference point), older people make up about 16% of our population. That’s one in six people.

So, why don’t we see more older people and more diversity represented in popular culture?

All too often, older people feel invisible, overlooked and underestimated, especially in a world dominated by social media and face value and we think it’s high time we remove this cultural blind spot. And what better way to put older people front and centre than with a photography competition?

Our Shine a Light photography competition invites you to turn your lens on the older people in your life and share what you see by taking and submitting photographs that celebrate older people and what it means to age well.

Shine a Light invites you to stop a minute and take a closer look at older members of our community. Enjoy their company. Think about what life is like for them. Question why we don’t see more of them. Find the beauty, the humanity. And appreciate them a little more.

The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers alike. The only parameter is that submissions need to feature older people. There are some great prizes to be won, including a category for the under 18s, over 70s photographers and photos from our very own staff. The competition will run through to January, so there is plenty of time over the Christmas break to take photos and submit them online.

Knowing the benefits of the relationships formed between people of different generations, we encourage photographers of all ages to get involved. We’d love to see younger people interacting with the older people in their lives. In fact, we’d love to see all aspects of ageing portrayed!

As an added bonus, the shortlisted entries will be included in an exhibition at the Wagga Wagga Marketplace in February and March next year alongside a public vote for the People’s Choice award. So, get snapping, and let those budding photographers in your life know about the competition. We can’t wait to see the entries!

Evan Robertson
CEO, The Forrest Centre

SUBMIT A PHOTO