Voices Against Stigma: MindFrame PhotoVoice 2012 Launches

Bermuda Hospitals Board today invites the community to come and support the launch of the annual MindFrame PhotoVoice Exhibition at the Bermuda Society of Arts on Friday 28 September from 5-7pm.

The MindFrame PhotoVoice Exhibition is a presentation of creative work by the service users of the Mid-Atlantic Wellness. This year’s theme is There’s A Person In Here: Voices Against Stigma and includes, for the first time, jewelry items, alongside art, photography and creative writing. The exhibition runs until Wednesday 17 October.

Stefan Davis, a participant in the PhotoVoice Project this year, also helped come up with the theme. “Growing up, I saw how people would stigmatize a person with mental illness. I thought it would be interesting to show a different side to the people suffering with mental illnesses compared to what is most people’s minds. This was the first time I have been involved with PhotoVoice and it was a good experience. I had a lot of fun taking pictures and it was the first time I’d been this side of the camera. It was a great adventure taking pictures of old spots where I used to go as a child.”

This year also, the Photography People’s Choice Award will be renamed the Tamell Simons Photography Award, in memory of Tamell Simons who worked with service users on the first few years of the PhotoVoice Project and sadly died this year.

Morrisa Rogers, Clinical Supervisor, Allied Health at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institutes comments: “This exhibition is a unique opportunity for our service users to communicate their experiences and showcase their talents to the people of Bermuda through paintings, necklaces, photographs and poetry. People who are recovering from mental health issues are very often stigmatized and marginalized in everyday life. This exhibition gives the people who are often not heard in society a creative voice in a community setting. Our message is that they are people too and we hope the community comes out to learn and reflect on the world from their perspective.”

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