WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN SOMERSET

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Documentary Wedding Photography

August, 2021

 IS A MICRO WEDDING REALLY FOR ME?

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In May, my lovely God Mother sent me a link to a Photo Competition that seemed RIGHT up my street. The Competition run by The "Movement for Peace" (MPDL organisation with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), launched its III Edition of their Photo Contest, "Transforming Social Realities".

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"Since its first edition in 2019, this contest has contributed to making visible the importance of citizen participation and social mobilization in the processes of change in our societies. The first edition focused on the value of voluntary action, while the second, marked by the Covid-19 health and social crisis, focused on expressions of solidarity and care."

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"This third edition, under the subtitle "Women: leading the way for change", hopes to reflect, through images and stories, the role of women in the processes of social change and the fight against sexist and patriarchal attitudes that still persist in our societies. With aims to make visible discourses and actions of a society that is built from the collective, with humanistic values, centred on people, their processes and diverse realities."

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 "For centuries, women participation has been invisible and relegated to the background. In the current context, world's efforts have focused on a single priority: sometimes at the expense of other equally important and urgent global causes, such as climate change or gender equality. This is why, in this edition, (the "Transforming Social Realities")" the accent is on them.

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Anyone could submit images with no limit on age or location. The Contest "...aims to collect photographs that represent women's actions, individual or collective, that contribute to social change and the fight against machismo. The photographs can reflect anything that the author believes contributes to the empowerment of women in society."

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With this, I started to ask myself these questions... ​

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• Which women around me have contributed to social change in my neighbourhood, town or city? & In what way?

• What forms of citizen participation around the Feminist movement (demonstrations, assemblies, meetings ...) inspire me? & do they contribute to raising awareness in society?

• Who would I like to thank for their activism in the defence of women's rights?

• What kind of actions (small or large) do I think contribute to equality between women and men?

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• What would I like to show as acts of sonority and support among women?

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I packed up my kit with my mind full of inspiration and these are the images & text I came up with...

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Before the year of 1975 a woman, in the U.K., could not open her own bank account or obtain a credit card without their husband’s signature and/or their husband’s permission. It was said that they wouldn’t be able to handle this financial responsibility unaided.

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Alice, a body positive Digital Creator, Musician and Writer based in Bristol, runs her own business supporting other women whilst encouraging open decisions about women’s health, what “normal life” is like for us, and finding inner strength and acceptance.

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The concept for this image was to place Alice firmly in the foreground, to make her “the visible” and the voice for many. Our goal was to create an image of an empowered woman breaking the boundaries for example, of what an “acceptable skirt length” is, or having her tattoos visibly on show, or anything that isn’t stereotypically “feminine” for that matter. We wanted to say, quite paradoxically so, that a businesswoman earning her own money has absolutely nothing to do with the way that she looks.

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By sourcing a local/traditional bank building as our backdrop, this image encapsulates solidarity for financial freedom and supports the work the feminist movement are doing on spreading the awareness and themes surrounding the Gender Pay Gap with a hope to encourage further thought and discussion on a journey that still has a long way to go.

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It was a wonderful competition to have taken part in, and I can't wait to work on more projects like this!​

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Bank Location : BA1 1DN

Model Credit : Alice Tulip

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