How your camera can help tell the story of [in]equality - our first photo competition

Submitted by Craig Griffiths on 9 March 2011

Worried about the increasing gap between rich and poor? Concerned about the link between income inequality and life expectancy, mental illness, murder rates and educational performance? Established photographer or complete beginner?

The Equality Trust is pleased to announce the launch of our first photography competition, The Spirit Level: images of [in]equality. We are looking for photographic representations of both income inequality and equality, photos that can grab attention, communicate and inspire.

Full information is available here.

Unfortunately, there are images of income inequality all around us. So while we anticipate many striking entries that capture the destructive nature of the gap between rich and poor in our society, we are also looking for positive representations of what a more equal society might look like - photos that can motivate through their positivity, galvanising people to action.

Above all else, we are looking for photos that conceptualise [in]equality in a new way, to provoke thought and debate in fresh and interesting ways. Although The Spirit Level has been phenomenally successful, not everyone has, can or will read the book, and so we are interested not just in the written word but how the visual image might help communicate our message.

The competition will be judged by professional photographers Mark Burton and Jeff Hubbard alongside Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. We are delighted to be working with Crisis, who are dedicating one of their regular photography workshops to the competition theme.

There are categories for photography students and amateurs/beginners as well as for professional photographers; winners will receive a copy of the Images of [in]equality photo book that will be published at the end of the competition. We hope also to arrange an exhibition later in the year.

Full information and rules are available here. The competition is open now and will close at noon on April 15^th.

Good luck!