Touchstone, in partnership with Synergi-Leeds and Words of Colour, is looking for 10 men of colour with lived experience of mental illness, carers and advocates, to be part of Your Voice, Your Photo, a community photographic project running from 10th June to 8th July 2024.
Your Voice, Your Photo is a co-created process that will provide an opportunity for participants (aged 18 and above) to determine how they’d like to capture their unheard stories through photography – as a form of self expression, to give voice to their experience and to inspire change. The prompt for the project is the over-representation of black and South Asian men detained under the Mental Health Act and on psychiatric wards.
Theme
The project’s focus is ‘The Future’, however that is personally interpreted. Participants will help create a question to respond to on this theme, through taking photographs. Such as how they see their future, what is important to them, what they want to see changed and what having agency in their lives looks like to them.
The workshops will be facilitated by Joy Francis (a creative practitioner, executive director of Words of Colour and co-founder of Remembering What’s Forgotten) and photographer, mental health activist and trustee of Mighty Men of Valour Lee Townsend (see photos below). There is no expectation for the participants, their friends or family members being featured or identified in any of the photographs. Workshops will be supported by Stephanie Francis and Rory Wells, from Touchstone.
Based on the ‘photovoice’ method of co-creation, participants will be invited to take part in two workshops on photographic approaches, ethics, using disposable cameras, and different (and safe) ways to capture personal experiences and narratives through audio and text. Past examples will be shown. All participants will be paid for their time and their travel expenses will be covered.
Topics
Photographs can be taken of objects, places, pets, street scenes, street signs and buildings; items that inspire, or influences, from vinyl records or CD covers to books. In terms of representing a person, photos can be taken of someone’s hands, an item of clothing, the back profile of someone special, their hair in close up (like an abstract image) or accessories. Guidance will be provided in the first workshop.
After exploring and agreeing on each person’s individual approach, participants will be allocated a disposable camera and have two weeks to take photographs on how they see or interpret ‘The Future’. For example, an insight into their daily lives, such as a photograph of their breakfast (if nutrition is an important goal), or of the Bible, Koran, a Buddha figure, if faith or spirituality are important. All the photographs are taken through the participants’ personal lens and viewpoint.
Exhibition
Before the second workshop, all the photographs will be printed. The participants, facilitated by Joy Francis, will choose the five photographs they are happy to be exhibited in the final digital exhibition, and one image to be exhibited in the in person launch.
Participants will then be facilitated to write or describe each photograph which will form the photo’s caption. The context of the exhibition and how their work will be part of the exhibition will be discussed in both workshops. Everyone who takes part in the programme will be invited to the exhibition launch.
Programme schedule
The deadline to sign up for the programme is Wednesday 5th June 2024. The full schedule is below.
Wednesday 29th May 2024 (11am-11.45am): Your Voice, Your Photo virtual information session (Zoom), hosted by Joy Francis. Email [email protected] by Tuesday 28th May 2024 to book your place.
By 5pm on Wednesday 5th June 2024: Deadline for expressions of interest to participate in the project.
We would like to know:
1. Why you want to participate in this project.
2. What you hope to gain, learn and contribute by taking part.
2. That you can attend both workshops and complete the programme, though we appreciate that life happens and there may be unforeseen circumstances.
Monday 10th June 2024 (12pm – registration; 12.30pm-2.30pm workshop): The first Your Voice, Your Photo workshop (in-person) with Joy Francis and Lee Townsend and supported by Stephanie Francis (Touchstone)
Monday 10th-Tuesday 25th June 2024: Participants take their photographs
By 5pm on Wednesday 26th June 2024: Participants hand in their disposable cameras to Touchstone for the photographs to be printed
Monday 8th July 2024 (12pm – registration; 12.30pm-3pm workshop): The second Your Voice, Your Photo workshop (in-person) with Joy Francis, Stephanie Francis and Rory Wells (Touchstone)
Contact details
To find out more about the project email [email protected] or [email protected].
You can also call Rory or Stephanie via WhatsApp or text 07484 519 399, or the landline 0113 248 4880.
“Mental illness is not the end of the world. You can recover from it. The photographs show my past life and present life. This is my real story. I have a life and I have to live for myself before I live for others. I hope that people will come and see my pictures and that they will gain confidence and that they will encourage them.”
Synergi Collaborative Centre photovoice participant (2019)