Canon UK has announced another successful year of its Creative Media Camp, run as part of its Young People Programme in partnership with the Ideas Foundation. The five-day event (23rd-27th July) for students aged 13-18 inspired creativity and confidence in attendees through a series of interactive workshops on photography, film, graphic design and animation.

Now in its fourth year, the event took place at University of the Arts London and saw 23 students work together in five teams to harness the power of positive visual storytelling to drive change. The programme uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to give young people the opportunity to talk about the global issues that affect their futures. Each group chose one of the United Nations SDGs to use as a central theme for their photographs and videos.

The Creative Media Camp was led by Canon Ambassador Simeon Quarrie, a specialist in visual storytelling and animation, and founder of creative agency VIVIDA Productions. 

Simeon said, “as a Canon Ambassador one thing I really enjoy doing is working with young people and trying to inspire them to realise the type of video and imagery that myself and other ambassadors create is not so distant. If they are determined and put in the right creative steps, then anything is possible.”

At the end of the week, team ‘Pankhurst’ claimed victory following its winning presentation on gender inequality and gender stereotypes, titled ‘Equality for All’. The winning team will each receive a Canon EOS M100 camera and a session on how best to use it.

Hayley Anderson, Creative Media Camp attendee and member of winning group ‘Pankhurst’ added, “I’ve always liked photography and this was a really unique opportunity to develop my skills. I got to try editing which was a new experience and it was great to be part of the winning team at the end of the week. We worked really well together in such a short amount of time.”