Photography courses with a Difference
Well Image was founded by Vanessa Miles in 2020 as a response to the pandemic. As a photographer and teacher she decided to take her courses online. These took the form of small, live groups exploring themes together which act as inspiration for an activity to do between sessions.
Vanessa had noticed photography was an effective catalyst for change and chose five aims based on her experience. The aims are closely aligned to the NHS five ways to mental health: these are well researched. Coming out of the pandemic, Well Image teamed up with charitable organisations who shared the same values to deliver online courses for those who found it difficult to leave their homes. Well Image has now worked with over 200 people who self diagnosed as having poor mental health. We discovered that there were many whom the groups became a life line, providing a calm space to explore their own creativity and many described the workshops as life changing.
We work with organisations to provide funded courses which are gentle and enabling, help people focus on the positive and encourage people to spend more time outdoors at their own pace. This has often led to people making new social connections and as a consequence, meet in person as photo buddies. From our experience we have observed that when online courses are run in specific geographic areas, they are further enriched by participants seeing familiar subjects through the eyes of their peers. We have now incorporated this into our new ANOTHER LENS courses.
If you would like to read more on the positive changes are courses can have, click here for personal impact stories.