Mayo photographers can enter How We Age competition now
The Institute of Public Health (IPH) has launched its second How We Age photography competition to capture the lived experiences of older people today in Mayo and throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The 2024 competition seeks to build on the success of the 2022 competition and will this year focus on the theme ‘How We Age: Working, Learning and Volunteering in Later Life’.
The all-island competition is open for entries from today (Wednesday) and has several top prizes on offer.
The How We Age competition is all about changing how we portray ageing and older people in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It seeks to create a series of images that will better represent and more accurately portray what it means to age or get older by showing older people doing ordinary, everyday things.
Under the theme of How We Age: Working, Learning and Volunteering in Later Life, IPH is seeking images that portray older people in an authentic and inclusive way, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, culture, ability, income or post code.
Under this theme, the Institute is seeking images that reflect and include older adults working (all forms of work, including part-time, full-time, paid and unpaid), learning (whether engaged in lifelong learning, teaching or learning), and volunteering (contributing to society, both formally and informally).
The competition is free to enter, open to residents of Ireland and Northern Ireland over the age of 18, and open for entries from now until August 16. Entrants can submit up to a maximum of three photos and all entries must be submitted via the online entry form on the IPH website, which can be accessed at www.publichealth.ie/photo. Acceptance of terms and conditions is a condition of entry.
Prizes include gift vouchers for photography equipment to the value of €/£500 for first prize, €/£300 for second prize, and €/£100 for third prize, depending on where the winning entrants reside.
The 2024 How We Age competition will add to an existing How We Age image gallery, which is available for use by IPH, partners and other stakeholders as a free-to-access image resource. Details of the winners will be announced and published on the IPH website on October 1 – International Day for Older Persons.
Commenting on the competition launch, IPH director of ageing development and research, Professor Roger O’Sullivan, said: “We are really excited to launch our second How We Age photography competition and look forward to seeing how photographers of all ages across Ireland and Northern Ireland interpret and capture the theme of ‘Working, Learning and Volunteering in Later Life’.
“More and more people are living longer and healthier lives, and we hope the 2024 competition will generate a series of images that reflect how older adults engage with and contribute to their communities through work, lifelong learning, or volunteering.”