PICTURE MY GRIEF.

Exploring grief through photography.

  • I FOUND A SMALL LEMON TREE.

  • LOSS & CHANGE.

  • LOSS & CHANGE.

  • PHOTOGRAPHY ZINE WORKSHOP.

  • PHOTOGRAPHY ZINE WORKSHOP.

  • I FOUND A SMALL LEMON TREE.

What Is Picture My Grief?

A participatory arts and health initiative

Picture My Grief uses photography to explore experiences of grief, loss and significant life change. It creates space for people to explore and express loss visually, particularly when words feel difficult or insufficient.

Through participatory projects, exhibitions and research, Picture My Grief centres lived experience, care and creative agency. Rooted in a photovoice approach and ethical, consent-led practice, the initiative aims to contribute to wider conversations around grief, loss, visibility and care. It also seeks to develop approaches that can be used within community and health settings.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRIEF.

Grief can be difficult to express in words. Photography offers a way to explore memories, emotions and experiences, giving visual form to thoughts and feelings.

Mindful photography also invites people to slow down, notice their surroundings and connect with the present moment. The process of making photographs can create space for reflection, expression and moments of calm.

When photographs are shared, they can open conversations and create opportunities for connection and mutual understanding.

WHAT IS PHOTOVOICE?

Photovoice is a participatory approach that uses photography to help people explore and communicate their lived experiences. Within Picture My Grief, this means participants create their own images and decide what those images represent.

Photography becomes a tool for reflection, expression and shared understanding, rather than documentation or diagnosis. Photovoice is used across arts, health and community research settings.

Projects and Workshops

Picture My Grief develops participatory photography projects and workshops within community, arts, educational and health settings.

Activities may include photography, reflection, group conversation, visual storytelling, zine and photobook making, exhibitions and moving image. Each project is shaped around its participants, context and purpose.

  • “Grief isn’t just a reminder that someone’s died, but that they’ve lived”

    Alka Rajput

  • "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

    Dorothea Lange

  • "Photography is the story I fail to tell with words."

    Ansel Adams

  • "Photography is the art of seeing."

    Ansel Adams

  • “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.”

    A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

  • “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

    Queen Elizabeth

  • “That’s really what grief has taught me. That I can survive. I used to be afraid that if I experienced grief it would overcome me and I wouldn’t be able to survive the flood of it, that if I actually felt it I wouldn’t be able to get back up. It’s taught me that I can feel it and it won’t swallow me whole. But we come from a culture where we think people have to be strong. I’m a big believer in being vulnerable, open to grief. That is strength. You can’t know joy unless you know profound sadness. They don’t exist without each other.”

    Elisabeth Kübler-Ross