Get snapping for Mencap and you could win fabulous prizes!

Friday 20 February 2009

Snap! 2009's deadline is fast approaching...Mencap, the UK learning disability charity, is calling for budding photographers and film makers with a learning disability and their families and friends to hurry and enter its photo and story competition. If you get your entry in by 9 March 2009 you could be in with the chance of winning a fantastic Fujifilm digital camera.

Now in its seventh year, Snap! is Mencap's photo and story competition that gives a moving insight into an often misunderstood world. Every photo entered into Snap! must either be taken by or feature someone with a learning disability and be accompanied by a short descriptive story. This year, for the first time, there is also a short film category. Everyone has a story to tell and Mencap wants to hear yours.

Mark Goldring, Mencap's chief executive, says: "Each year the photographs produced for Snap! are extraordinary. The competition is a fantastic way to open people's eyes to a world they may not know much about and to showcase the talents of people with a learning disability. Photography and film can make a huge difference to the way people understand others."

Winners will receive a fantastic state-of-the-art Fujifilm digital camera and be invited to attend a glittering, star-studded awards ceremony in London. All the winning photographs and films will be shown at a London art gallery over the summer of 2009. A selection of photos will then go on tour around the UK as part of a large-scale, outdoors exhibition called ‘This is me', which has already exhibited on the Southbank in London and in Birmingham city centre.

Snap! is supported by Fujifilm UK Ltd and The Sorrell Foundation. For more information on how to enter, visit www.mencap.org.uk/snap or call 020 7696 5524.

-ends-

Notes to Editors

For more information and jpegs of last year's winning pictures contact Tara Rayment, Mencap press office, 020 7696 6937 or tara.rayment@mencap.org.uk

Mencap

• Mencap works with people with a learning disability and their families and carers.
• 1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability.
• Learning disability affects someone's intellectual and social development all their life.
• It is not mental illness. It is not dyslexia.
• It used to be called mental handicap but we don't use this term anymore because most people with a learning disability find it offensive.
• People with a learning disability don't get an equal chance in life. That's why we fight to change laws and services, and directly support thousands of people to live their lives the way they want.
• For information about learning disability issues please call the Learning Disability Helpline (England) on 0808 808 1111 or visit www.askmencap.info
• For online press information, go to www.mencap.org.uk/press

The Sorrell Foundation

• The Sorrell Foundation was set up to inspire creativity in young people and to improve the quality of life through good design.
• For more information visit http://www.thesorrellfoundation.com/

Fujifilm UK Ltd

• Mencap has been Fujifilm's charity partner for the last 12 years. Fujifilm's financial support and specialist knowledge has helped Mencap to create a Media Library, which contains the core visuals for the majority of Mencap's work.
• Fujifilm is a global leader in imaging technology, products and services including digital cameras, photofinishing, digital storage and recording media, consumer and professional film, motion picture film, professional video, printing systems, medical imaging, office technology, flat panel displays and graphic arts.
• In the UK, Fujifilm has been supplying the imaging, printing and graphics industries, as well as consumers, professional and enthusiast photographers, with high quality, innovative products and services for over 25 years. Fujifilm UK Ltd currently employs more than 400 people and has become one of the country's most popular photographic and imaging brands.