The 2020 ‘Lockdown: Taking a positive view’ Youth Photography Awards’ on-line exhibition is now live at www.positiveview.org.uk/lockdown-exhibition
The UK-wide ‘Lockdown: Taking a positive view’ Youth Photography Awards’ 2020 was conceived by the Positive View Foundation as an emergency Covid-19 cultural arts event in partnership with The Royal Photographic Society, and is generously supported by The Arts Council.
“These young people have shown the power of photography to document their personal experiences of lockdown while, at the same time supporting their own well-being during a challenging time. Their images are powerful and insightful and add to our collective understanding of how society is responding to the pandemic. The RPS is proud to be working with Positive View to empower our next generation of photographers.” Evan Dawson, CEO, The Royal Photographic Society
Its aim is to enable young people aged 16-25 to document, record, and expose the issues they have had to contend with during the Coronavirus lockdown.
This is the UK's first high-profile photography prize exclusively focused on young people, many of whom have grown up in disadvantaged backgrounds. For the majority, participating in this unique competition has been the first time that they have discovered the power of photography as a means of expressing their hidden creative skills. Mental health has been and still is a huge issue for everyone, especially through these stressful times and it was felt that the power of photography was a good way for the young people to express themselves, or just to focus on a project to keep them busy through these trying times.
The awards’ overall success has been demonstrated by them receiving over 3,500 submissions – attracted through a UK social media campaign that received over 1,700,000 openings, and will now be an annual feature on the Photography Awards calendar.
Members of the judging panel are renowned UK photographers: Nadav Kander; Lucy Mohr; Simon Roberts; Richard Young; with Lucia Power, Awards Executive of the Positive View Foundation as the non-voting chair.
Between them they have chosen the winning three entries as well as the 10 Highly Commended images, all of which can be seen online at www.positiveview.org.uk/lockdown-exhibition.