BHCC and Sussex Neuroscience Photography Exhibition on Mental Health

This is an opportunity for you to have your work displayed on the Brighton beach gabions in this collaboration between Sussex Neuroscience and the BHCC, for the month of April 2023. The theme is “Mental Health”.

Sussex Neuroscience is a research centre of around 350 scientists, including staff and students, at the University of Sussex (Falmer campus). Their work aims to understand the brain, from genetics, diseases, and drugs, through to the senses, how the brain drives our behaviour, and different aspects of mental health.

We are asking you as local photographers to capture your own interpretations of what mental health means to you, to create visually striking images that will be uplifting or thought-provoking for passers-by. We believe that art, science, and everyday life all play important roles in helping us to understand and support our mental health, as individuals and as a community.

This exhibition will coincide with a large international “Festival of Neuroscience” in Brighton – a scientific conference and public engagement programme hosted by the British Neuroscience Association. Footfall past the exhibition will therefore include many neuroscientists in addition to the wider public.

Ideas for Exhibition Images

The theme of this exhibition is “mental health”.

This is a very broad theme and can be interpreted any way you want.

You may choose to submit images that reflect what mental health means to you.

You may choose to submit images that illustrate various aspect of the working of the mind.

Examples:

1. Positive aspects of a healthy mind – images of happiness, elation, satisfaction, love, respect, community spirit, support, caring, generosity, humour …
2. Negative aspects of the mind – images depicting fear, loathing, despair, sadness, emptiness, loneliness, deprivation, poverty, violence, neglect, memory loss, chaos, discord, conflict, anxiety, panic, paranoia, worry, alcoholism, drug abuse …
3. Ways of keeping the mind healthy – images of exercise, the outdoors, beautiful vistas, sunsets, travel, friendship, conversations, games of thought such as chess, pets, healthy foods, medications, medical equipment …
4. Mental Health workers – images of carers, nurses, support workers, hospitals …
5. Mental Health illnesses – images depicting dementia, stroke, paralysis, substance abuse, depression, mania, risk-taking, self-harm …
6. The working of the mind – images of colour, light and shadows, visual anomalies, trompe l’oeils, abstracts, decision-making, indecision, brain development e.g. child development or learning …

… and I am sure there are hundreds of other examples you could come up with.

Each photographer can submit up to 2 photographs on this theme. Photographs can be in any orientation, and in colour or monochrome.

1. In the first instance, please submit low-resolution jpg files at a maximum size of 1080 pixels vertically x 1920 pixels horizontally and no larger than 2MB i.e. exactly the same parameters as critique night submissions. Please give each image a title. Bear in mind that the title and your name will be added to the final print on a white border below the image. Please name your jpg file with the image title, e.g. Endless Joy.jpg. No borders or watermarks are allowed. Images should be uploaded to the Brighton and Hove Camera Club website in the usual manner.

You can enter images now. The deadline for submitting your photographs is midnight on Sunday 5^th March 2023.

From the entries, at least 24 will be chosen for the exhibition.

The photographs will be selected by a panel of BHCC and Sussex Neuroscience representatives on the merit of the photographs and the communication of the theme. We invite an open interpretation of “mental health”.

2. If your image is chosen, we will contact you by email. Please ensure that your email address is correct in your account on the membership page of the BHCC website. We will ask you to provide the same image, this time as a high-resolution jpg file at a maximum size of 741mm x 495mm (29.17 x 19.48 inches). Please set a print resolution of 300dpi. This gives an image of about 8,750 pixels x 5,840 pixels, i.e. a 51 MPixel image, which equates to about a 10.5 MB file. The images will be scaled and centralised horizontally for the maximum sizes above. Each image will have a white border. The title of your image and your name will be added to the white border below your image.

If selected, please send your high-resolution jpg image files as attachments by e-mail to al.punja@bhcc-online.org

Please put “Exhibition” in the e-mail subject line and include your name in the e-mail as you wish it to appear beside your image when exhibited.

There are no costs to be borne by the photographers. All printing costs will be covered for you. The printed photographs and copyright will remain the property of the photographer.