Headway Highland Photo Exhibition – Evija Laivina

Headway Highland is a small independent charity that has been supporting adults with an acquired brain injury (ABI) and their families/carers since 1994.  We provide support throughout the Highlands with support groups in Inverness, Nairn, Thurso, Wick, Alness, Fort William and Oban. In May 2022 we asked our Inverness members, if they were interested, to meet with photographer Evija Laivina from Highland Print Studio in Inverness to discuss the possibility of becoming involved in a photography project.  This would then culminate in an exhibition of selected photographs taken throughout the project.

Acquired brain injury is often thought of as a “hidden illness” with people appearing completely normal from the outside but actually having an inner struggle with symptoms that can affect their emotions, behaviour, communication, often with psychological and psychosocial difficulties.  When supporting someone with an acquired brain injury an understanding of the range of consequences of their ABI is crucial.

The project would involve our members getting advice and support from Evija on all aspects of photography including taking photographs at a variety of venues, including Inverness Botanic Gardens, Culloden Battlefield and Torvean Park amongst others.

We had a great response and those members that took part really embraced the project. It was wonderful to see so many stunning photographs being taken and how engaged and passionate our members were in the art of trying to get their “perfect shot”.   A special thank you must go to Evija who has worked so hard to bring this project together and been so supportive to our members.

The most difficult part of the project was trying to decide which photos to leave out and we eventually agreed to have 50 photos to display in the exhibition. We then had the task of trying to find a suitable venue to hold our photography exhibition and were absolutely delighted that Inverness Creative Academy agreed that we could exhibit there from Saturday 5th November to Tuesday 22^nd November 2022.

Everyone is very excited, and we cannot wait to see the amazing photos taken by our members exhibited for the public to view.  Very kindly our members will generously donate any proceeds from photos purchased to Headway Highland.