Researchers at the University of Liverpool recently hosted a photo competition using photovoice, this is a visual research method where photographs are used to explore and address community needs, stimulates individual empowerment an creative a critical dialogue to advocate community change.
For the competition I had to answer the question "Why is obesity rising in the UK?".
In order to decide how I was going to answer this question in a photograph, I firstly thought about how I would answer this verbally and what my own opinions are on why obesity is rising in the UK.
In the 2016 survey, it found that 26.2% of adults in England are obese and a further 35.2% are overweight, making a total of 61.4% who are either overweight or obese, Compared to 15% that were obese or overweight in 1993. Meaning obesity has risen by 11.2% since 1993.
In my opinion, obesity has risen due to the ever growing population of fast food restaurants in the UK, these restaurants offer cheap, fast food, which is is convenient for people on the go.
In order to communicate this in my photo entry, I came up with the idea that I wanted to capture a shot with multiple fast food chain restaurants in, to demonstrate that how popular, and how saturated the fast food franchise is, as this is what I feel is a major contributor to obesity in the UK.
In order for my entry to be successful, I had to find a location and vantage point where I could fit multiple fast food chain restaurants into my shot. After exploring Liverpool city centre I found the best location was in the centre of Liverpool One as I could have a McDonald restaurant in the foreground and a Burger King restaurant in the background. Below is the image I entered along with the caption explaining it.
My aim for this image was to communicate that there are so many fast food chains about which I believe contributes greatly to why obesity is rising in the UK. These places offer cheap, quick, convenient meals for people out and about, however they are often not very nutritious. The number of fast food restaurants about massively outnumbers small businesses and cafes that usually offer a healthier meal choice, meaning that people are easily drawn to the cheap, high calorie meals that fast food restaurants offer which is contributing to obesity in the UK.
Entering this competition helped to challenge me and improve my creativity as a photographer and helped me to use my photos to communicate stories or address social issues. I wanted my photo to clearly illustrate my opinion as to why obesity is rising in the UK so it was important to me that I had a location with multiple fast food restaurants in so that the community would understand the story behind the photo. I also think entering the competition helped my develop skills I will need in the photography industry which is organisation and meeting quick deadlines. When I received information about the competition, there was only a couple of days left until the deadline meaning that I had to quickly come up with and idea, find a location and shoot. This helped improve my creativity skills as it helped me to come up with ideas whilst under pressure which is important in the industry as there is always pressure to complete work for the client's deadline. It also helped me to improve my creativity for when I am not as passionate about the subject. I was not as interested about the subject of obesity in this competition as it is not something that I read into in my spare time and only ever hear about it on the news. I often find it difficult to come up with creative ideas for subjects I'm not interested in so I thought this competition was a good opportunity to practice developing creative ideas for subjects i am less passionate about as when I am working in the industry my clients my want images about a subject I am not overly passionate about, however I would still need to complete the job to a high standard.