Raising Minds Photography Competition
Last year we asked young people to submit a photo that captures the connection between family and mental health.
We are happy to announce the results of our photography competition. The entries we received showed a wide range of ideas, styles, and stories. It was clear that a lot of care and creativity went into each entry. Thank you to everyone who took part and shared their work with us.
Congratulations to our winners:
First Place: Ellyarna Newburn
Ellyarna is a Year 8 student at Carinity Southside Education. She shared this photo of herself and her care worker to show the important role that care workers have, and their valuable connection that assists her and her mental health as she navigates the challenging teenage years in care.
Second Place: Gemma Bull
“In the Company of Healing” is a photographic and digital artwork series that explores the intimate connection between family, illness, and the fragile but enduring presence of support. These works are born out of deeply personal experiences of mental illness, hospitalisation, and the quiet resilience found in the company of loved ones.
Colour becomes the primary language in this body of work. My family members are represented in bright, warm tones – peach, pink, blue, and green – deliberately chosen to radiate life, energy, and presence. Their colours are not arbitrary, but a symbolic contrast to my own figure, which is rendered entirely in black. By positioning myself in darkness, I communicate the consuming weight of mental illness: a voided space where identity feels eclipsed. The white swirls inside my head are tangled and restless, a direct visualisation of intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and internal chaos.
The image on the left situates the viewer within a hospital setting, a place that embodies both vulnerability and recovery. The drawn feeding tube extending from my figure is a stark reminder of the severity of illness and the physical consequences of psychological struggle. It is a quiet but powerful acknowledgement of fragility – the body kept alive while the mind is in turmoil. Despite the clinical coldness of the hospital room, the surrounding figures, in their brightness, lean in with warmth and presence. They are there in solidarity, embodying the theme that gives the work its title: healing does not occur in isolation, but in the company of others.
Third Place: Roseanna
The photograph I have uploaded may not seem enough but the description is far beyond. The words written all over the highlighted person in the middle is what he feels negatively. His family is also covered with words but the words are positive. He is sadly going through mental health all by himself.
In the image, the highlighted person is crouched down with arms held above to reach his family’s hands but unfortunately, it can’t reach. Their love still touches him and flows towards him, (the arrows with a love heart in between) meaning that he is loved and is not alone.
His family will always be there with their love, supporting him with their positive mindsets. Always know that you are not alone!