On Day of the Seafarer 2022 the Trust has launched our 3rd seafarer photography competition, Life At Sea 2022.
In 2020 we received almost 3000 remarkable submissions to the Still At Sea competition, which documented the real experiences of seafarers during the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting crew change crisis. In 2021 the Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind competition added a wealth of portraits of seafarers, by seafarers. These striking images and the commentary the photographers provided with them gave an instant insight into seafarers’ living and working conditions.
Through this project we have been able to engage directly with seafarers, helping to inform our grant making strategy and enriching our understanding of the current issues which matter to seafarers. Images from the competition were also featured in news media highlighting the difficulties seafarers were facing during the pandemic and headed international campaigns for improvements to seafarers’ working conditions and ability to travel. We were also pleased to share the seafarers’ photos in exhibitions at the IMO and to show the public the real life of seafarers at the Rotterdam Maritime Museum and Greenwich Maritime Museum.
Our aim now is to develop the archive as a unique repository of seafarers’ social history and use it to reach a wider audience though museums and galleries around the world. Competitions are fun, but the serious work ahead of us is in raising the profile of seafarers, giving them a voice and educating a global public about global supply chains and the seafarers that keep them moving.
The Life At Sea 2022 competition runs from 25 June to 31 August 2022. Find out more here:
