Tony Hadley to judge Youth Concern’s #nosmileselfie photography competition
Aylesbury-based charity, Youth Concern is inviting young people across Aylesbury Vale to take part in its #nosmileselfie competition which will run for 4 weeks from Friday 9th April 2021.
The competition is to promote the launch of Youth Concern’s photo drop-in, which will start on 10th June 2021 at their drop-in centre, the Uptown Coffee Bar. Delivered by qualified photographer, Carole Niven, this will comprise a series of free sessions where young people will have the chance to learn creative and technical photography skills. All sessions will be delivered in accordance with Covid safe regulations.
Youth Concern is delighted to announce that pop icon, Tony Hadley, will be one of the judges of the #nosmileselfie competition. Tony is a local Buckinghamshire resident and a DJ on BBC Three Counties radio. Tony comments: “I know Aylesbury well and Youth Concern do amazing work supporting disadvantaged young people. Giving young people an opportunity to experience creative activities, like photography, is so important and I was thrilled to be asked to get involved.”
The #nosmileselfie competition will run until the 30th of April and will be open to anyone between the ages of 13 and 25. Entrants will be invited to take a selfie on their phone where they are deliberately not smiling. Instead, they will be asked to capture an image of themselves exploring a different emotion and using the environment around them to take an interesting and thought-provoking photograph.
Youth Concern’s CEO, Hannah Asquith, comments “We wanted to do something a bit different to raise awareness of our new drop-in photography project and at the same time, to recognise that young people are going through extremely tough times. The pandemic has hit many young people hard and photography can be a great way of expressing emotions. We’re excited to be offering new creative experiences and opportunities for Aylesbury Vale’s 13-25 year olds.”
There will be three competition categories – ages 13 – 15, 16 – 18 and 19 – 25. The overall winner will receive a GoPro Hero9 camera and the winners of the other two categories will each win £50 Amazon vouchers. The competition is sponsored by Alcom IT who provide IT, networking and telecoms services to businesses. Karma Almosawi, co-founder and Finance Director, says “Although we work across the UK, being part of our local community in Aylesbury is really important to Alcom IT. We are delighted to encourage young people to express their emotions through the #nosmileselfie competition – which will hopefully generate interest for Youth Concern’s on-going photo drop-in sessions.”
Competition entries will be judged by small panel including Hannah Asquith, our CEO, Tony Hadley, Carole Niven, who will run the photo drop-in and Julie Gillespie of Bucks College Group. The winning entries will be announced in mid May.
To enter the competition, participants simply need to visit www.youthconcern.org.uk
The deadline for entries is 30th April 2021.
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Youth Concern’s photo drop-in will be run by qualified photographer, Carole Niven and will take place at Youth Concern’s drop-in centre, The Uptown Coffee Bar in Aylesbury.
At these free weekly sessions participants will have the opportunity to learn and try out the following photographic skills and techniques
- Using a DSLR camera
- Using light – natural and studio
- Composing the best image
- Vortographs – to create abstract images
- Digital editing and manipulating
- Images created without a camera
To find out more information about these sessions please visit www.youthconcern.org.uk