Shine a Light People’s Choice winner announced

Here at The Forrest Centre, we think acknowledging our older people is long overdue. In fact, we think it’s time to shine a light on ageing.

The Forrest Centre’s CEO, Evan Robertson said, “As an aged care provider, we have the privilege of working with older people every day and know that ageing not only brings meaning to life, but that older people are an incredibly important part of our community. Older people work. They volunteer. They have interests and hobbies. They laugh, they love… just like any other age group.”

So, why don’t we see more older people and more diversity represented in popular culture?

All too often, older people feel invisible, overlooked and underestimated, and we think it’s high time we remove this cultural blind spot. And what better way to put older people front and centre than with a photography competition?

Our Shine a Light photography competition invited people to turn the lens on the older people in their life and share what they saw by taking and submitting photographs that celebrate older people and what it means to age well.

Local photographer Kylie Daly took out the People’s Choice Award with her photo “Trout season will always be open for Brian”, a photo of her father who recently passed away.

“When I take photos, I capture moments, I capture a feeling. I love that this photo of my dad resonated with people because my dad was the epitome of joy. The light in his eyes shone through and I think people felt that. My dad lived a full, brilliant life and it’s really important that we show that through images. I think the Shine a Light competition is such a beautiful brief for photographers because it captures the ageing process and an important time in a person’s life that is too often overlooked.”

Along with the People’s Choice winner, the category winners are:

Open – Maree Myhill for “Rolfe Bridle in Tumut”

Under 18’s – Jordyn Toomey for “Sharing is caring”

Over 70’s – John Egan for “Love a cuppa”

Professional Photographer - Jypsie Cronan for “The younger years”

Staff – Kate Ballard for “Alfie”

Stay tuned for our Shine a Light photography competition to run again in 2024.