Creative Connections - Community Photography

Aim

Raising funds for free weekly Creative Connections photo-sessions for Plymouth's young people, women+, older residents & refugees!

We need your help to raise £30,000 to sustain our four CREATIVE CONNECTIONS community photography programmes for Plymouth's young people, women+, older residents and refugees and asylum seekers.

These funds will enable Fotonow to continue to deliver weekly sessions for each group throughout 2024, which will remain FREE to all our participants. 

For the past three years we’ve had some amazing support from the Rank Foundation and this income has help develop some wonderful projects here in Plymouth, including; 

> Unlocked Youth - our young person media education workshop on Tuesdays from Ocean Studios (currently our group is finishing up their Arts Award qualification). 

> Crescent Women+ Photography Group - which is a self-referral creative wellbeing programme often connecting people to the city and it’s events (see case study below).

> Photo Drop In & Foto Memory Cafe - working with older residents in the city offering photography as a tool to socialise and get creative (developing independence and feeling less isolated). 

> Creative Club - working with Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support - which sees our team support asylum seekers and refugees to pick up a camera and connect to Plymouth (sense of place is)

We’re hoping that your generosity will allow us to continue to provide some of our most impactful work and reduce our reliance on the uncertainty of funding. With the impact of the cost of living crisis (rising rents, wages and uncertainty for many we work with) we want to be able to offer creative photography and ‘build on’ our recent work.

We believe that PLYMOUTH is a better city with creativity and culture at its heart and sustaining our community projects is something we work tirelessly to achieve. Help us shape an amazingly vibrant inclusive city!

This year Fotonow turns 15 (we’ll have a party for all you Crowdfunder backers!) and we’ve given a lot of energy to the city in that time, to creatives and our communities. As some of our current funding ends we want Crowdfunder to be the means for ANYONE who has been touched by our work, or loves photography, or just wants to support us, to DONATE what you can!

What will the funding be used for?

The funding will sustain our 4 creative outreach programmes throughout 2024, with sessions delivered to participants every week. Those that attend our sessions often see really transformational connections through learning photography and getting involved in Plymouth’s wider creative scene, so we hope you'll help us keep making this difference. The cost of living crisis is something we’re aware of and we want to keep offering FREE sessions for our participants.

The funding will specifically cover our staffing costs, core costs, materials for sessions and production of community exhibitions (showcasing the amazing work our groups are doing), the odd pack of biscuits and drinks for those we’re working with too!

Any additional funding above our target will be used to run pilot workshops in Plymouth’s communities and developing new partnerships along the way, growing our work and helping people creatively connect through photography. 

About Fotonow

Based in Stonehouse (Plymouth), Fotonow enables people’s voices to be heard. We work with participants and communities to nurture possibility and ambition; aiming to create positive change and tangible outcomes for everyone we engage with.

Fotonow is a creative social enterprise, part of the Plymouth Social Enterprise Network and a Social Enterprise Mark holder. We are proud to be one of Plymouth’s Living Wage Foundation accredited businesses and a Disability Confident employer.

We declared a Climate emergency in 2019 and have worked on the plan to decarbonise our business by 2030 (you may have seen our team on our two company E-Bikes), we’ve most recently helped to shape Climate Connections Plymouth as a space for a collaborative journey towards a sustainable city.

Benefit to our participants and team

Having the space to experiment with creative media practice and opportunities to share work by putting on exhibitions and connecting with wider cultural resources through Fotonow’s support and network have been flagged as significant outcomes for many of our participants.

Fotonow’s flagship youth media programme Unlocked Youth was established in 2020 and many current participants have been with the group since then. Young people really value the social relationships and access to wider communities and opportunities in the city that Unlocked provides. “The best thing about coming to Unlocked is friends and I have less anxiety here. I have quite a lot of anxiety at school, so it’s really nice coming here and not having to worry.” (participant, aged 15).

Our work often connects to Plymouth's ambition to be a ‘Welcoming City’ with shared values where every person who lives in or visits the city will be treated fairly and with respect’. Our team have become really passionate in helping individuals develop their creativity through green spaces; head off on photography walks, wellbeing in nature days and a chance to look and take notice of our natural environment. 

> Case Study - Crescent Women+ Photography Group

Crescent works to help individuals combat loneliness and isolation and is able to do so by connecting individuals with each other and bringing them together. This is made possible through the inclusive and encouraging weekly sessions taking place in-house at Fotonow where participants are provided with a space to fulfil their own goals and aims regardless of their reasons for joining. Participants are provided with support in group settings through different means such as that of workshops, talks, and guidance to meet individual aims.

“I suffer a lot with anxiety. It was a big thing for me getting out and meeting new people, coming all the way from Tavistock and you’ve all been so lovely. I actually felt like all of the noises in my head stopped for a bit and it was just quiet. That doesn't happen a lot in my head so thank you.” (Emily, participant)

In 2023 Crescent had engaged 37 unique women+ participants. Our wellbeing in nature trips saw engagement from 27 unique women+ participants. Our recent Talk Shop exhibition had over 50+ visitors, and we have run 44 sessions with the group in 2023. We invested £13,650 into Crescent in 2023, with over 455 hours of staff and freelance time delivering all the sessions and outcomes.

“It is really lovely that we can just create a welcoming space for people where they can flourish and have their own aims.” (Emma Booth, Community Photographer at Fotonow)

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR WORK AND HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Rewards

We have some amazing rewards, just £5+ gets you a ticket to our celebration event later in 2024. Get a supporter pack of Foto goodies from £20, an original Fotonow project print from £30 or go big with one of our selective photographic artists prints from £150 (see below), we have the chance to get a professional portrait with photographer Josh Greet for £100, book a £500 photography workshop for your business, school or community or get a promo film made for £1000.

Every Crowdfunder backer will get a thank you in our 2024 impact report!

Please support this campaign, help us reach our target and hopefully receive match funding from Plymouth City Council!

[email protected]

www.fotonow.org

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Artist Rewards

Michelle Sank
Twins Maisy and Daisy in their back garden
(8 x 10inch print on digital archive paper)

Adrian Fisk
Shimla, India (2006)
(A3 digital print)

Sian Bonnell
Disciplines #18 (2014)
(Archival digital C-type on Innova Matt paper
Image size 23cm x 35cm on paper size 35cm x 41cm)

Iain McKell
Private Reality: The Diary of a Teenage Boy (signed copy)
(Hardcover, 160 pages)

Rob Darch SOLD ALREADY
The Island (signed copy) with a print (A4).

Sian Davey - 10 prints in total!!
Alice (portrait)
(A4 print on digital archive paper)

Sian Davey - 10 prints in total!!
Sitting with a Stranger
(A4 print on digital archive paper)

Maria Kapajeva
"Film 46, Frame 2” from ‘you can call him another man'
(digital print on A4 lustre paper)

This project successfully funded on 18th March 2024