Photography competition: celebrating life in the face of death

The aim of the competition is to encourage people to engage with death, dying or bereavement through photography.

Competition judge and celebrated photographer Rankin explains: “Art is a different way of seeing and talking about things we’d rather not discuss. The challenge of this competition is to look at the reality of death for all us, and then to celebrate the life we have.

“We all carry cameras with us these days, so I hope people will bring all their imagination, joys, fears and creativity to this. I hope to be astonished by the responses.”

As a fundraising competition, entry costs £15 per photograph, with no limit on the number of entries.

There will be a first prize of £1,000 for the best photograph, one runner-up prize for amateur photographers and another for professionals, and ten highly commended photos.

The prizes donated include the opportunity to observe a photography shoot with Rankin, a visit to an advertising shoot, portfolio reviews, a day in a professional studio, a Polaroid Camera+ packs of Impossible Project film, and photography handbooks.

An exhibition of winning and highly commended photographs will also go on tour around the country.

Photographs can be a place, person, or object or abstract composition which:

is a memory or moment of someone or something special in your life
is a representation of a life changing experience or achievement
depicts community spirit
reminds you of mortality.

Miranda Ryan of the Dying Matters coalition explains: “We’re looking for photographs that celebrate life, as well as acknowledging the reality of death. This might be images of places where we feel most alive, or of the people or things we love.

“It doesn’t have to be gloomy or morbid, although for some people the right image will contain sadness. There are no pre-ordained ideas about the type of image we’re looking for as long as it says something about celebrating life in the face of death.”

The deadline for entries is 18 December 2016.

Find out more about the competition on the Dying Matters website.