Capturing Nature photography exhibition

15/09/2022

A free community exhibition exploring mental health recovery through photography launches on Thursday 22 September.

You are invited to join Mind Tower Hamlets and Newham and us at the opening celebration of Capturing Nature on:

Thursday 22 September at St Paul’s Way Centre, between 11am and 1pm.

The exhibition, featuring photography by Colin Singlehurst, a Mind service user, will be on display at St Paul’s Way Centre from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, until Friday 30 September.

The exhibition is part of our ongoing partnership with Mind Tower Hamlets and Newham to support mental health in your community.

Colin Singlehurst, the photographer shares how Capturing Nature came to be:

"Photography is an escape. It has given me a purpose and the chance to be creative. It helps me break out of myself; stops me from being stuck in my room in front of a screen with depression. I turn my brain off; I take pictures without worrying."

“It began in January 2019 when I tried the photography workshop at Mind in Tower Hamlets & Newham. I had never taken a serious photo in my life but thought it would help my recovery. Six months later, I had a display at the Lansbury Micro Museum run by the V&A and two articles published online by Create Arts.

During the pandemic, I realised just how important photography had been to me. I wanted to help others. I completed the Peer Leader training at MiTHN and set up my own online group, ‘Photography at Home’. It ran for a year.

Then, in September 2021 as the pandemic restrictions relaxed, I started Walk Talk and Snap, a weekly walking group combining my love of nature, photography, and a desire to bring people together. I held a three-week exhibition of my work at Open House in Bow in May this year. I was so pleased to be able to showcase the work of other people who had attended the group and found the same enjoyment as I have in taking pictures.

The pictures in this exhibition are from when I go out.”