Mumbai : 5th Edition of Spixels, an annual photography challenge for the differently abled culminated in Mumbai on 9th Dec at Victoria Memorial School for Blind, Tardeo. With 10 state participation, 170+ entries, Spixels had the theme for this year as “Life after 60!!”
In today’s world of AI & social media, the older generation of our society feel left out. Their families do not have time for them. The kids, the grand kids are all busy with their studies, work, leisure. Unfortunate ones end up in old age homes or on roads. This year Spixels wanted differently abled to go and share a little time with them, capture them in their own zones, in their day to day activities. Their hopes, their let downs, their lives, nostalgia, happy moments, brooding moments…. Capture everything you can!!
As lonely as it gets for the old people, it’s much worse for the Specially Abled people, especially Children. No one around them understands that this is a condition, not a disease & it is never going to be fine. You need patience and love to make them feel wanted & needed. Spixels wants to create an eco system where both old & Specially Abled can come together, spend time with each other & belong to each other. Life is not fair but we can always create a small sanctuary for two lonely sections of our society to be with each other.
Spixels come from two words – Special Pixels. Spixels is a pan India photography challenge of photographs clicked by Specially-abled or rather differently-abled children & adults. It’s free for the participants. We receive online entries, shortlist them, put up an exhibition for these short-listed pictures, bring in judges to choose the top 5, get them signed by a celebrity & return them to winners. Spixels winning pictures have been signed by:
2019 – Mr. Amitabh Bachchan
2020 – Mr. Mani Ratnam
2021 – Mr. Santosh Sivan
2022 – Mr. Daboo Ratnani
This year, the final pictures were judged by Dr. Binoy Gupta (Ex Chief Commissioner of Income Tax), a photographer and a Ukiyoto 2023 Awarded Author & Deepa Jhaveri (Mrs. India Earth 2019, Mrs Asia Pacific Golden Diva 2022, an Anchor, model, stand-up comedian and a world peace ambassador. The exhibition was attended by Special children, film makers, differently abled photographers & various NGO representatives who work for the empowerment of differently abled.
