On Sunday morning I went to meet Sinead McDonald who took my portrait photo for the First Fortnight Festival 2012. The images will form an exhibition for the festival with a view to putting an end to the stigma surrounding mental health issues. I’d heard about it from @darraghdoyle during the week. The good news? You can help too so read on. What’s First Fortnight?:
First Fortnight is an arts-based mental health awareness project that happens in the first two weeks of every year. Fresh from the success of a hugely successful event with Amnesty International Ireland in January 2011, First Fortnight and See Change need your help to make the project bigger, better and nationwide in the first two weeks of 2012.
Here’s Sinead’s own description of what she’s doing and why:
First Fortnight is an arts-based mental health awareness project who, along with See Change, are organising a 2 week festival of music and visual arts with a focus on ending the stigma surrounding mental health issues. The aim is to get people talking about the things that concern themselves and the people they love. I’m very excited to be involved this year, but I need your help!
I’m producing a series of portraits (it’s what I love doing most), which will be exhibited for the duration of the festival; the first two weeks in January 2012. I’m looking for people who’ve been affected by mental health issues in any way, both directly and indirectly (and lets face it - there are very few of us who haven’t been..) to sit for me for an informal portrait. The project will also incorporate short text pieces in the style of the #whatstigma hashtag that’s been used on Twitter with such great success. I want to produce a wall of images and text, for really strong visual impact and to act as a starting point for conversation, so I need as many people as possible! So if you’ve been affected personally, or someone in your family, or a friend, please email me at: [email protected], so I can take your picture
Sinead will be finishing up taking portraits next weekend (3rd/4th) so please get in touch ASAP if you can assist. I was number 98. I got back into the car after the shoot and heard about the tragic suicide of Gary Speed (Welsh football manager). It’s yet another reminder of how important projects like First Fortnight & See Change are.
