Open Eye Gallery is an independent, not-for-profit photography gallery based in Liverpool. They share photography for everyone, with everyone, every day.
Launched in 1977, Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery was one of the UK’s first dedicated photography galleries. Excluded from the programmes of art galleries, photographers and others with an interest in the medium established their own network of galleries in the 1970s and ‘80s, with a growing sense of photography’s artistic, social and political potential.
After working from premises in Bold Street and Wood Street in the 90s and 2000s, in 2011 the Gallery moved to new premises in Mann Island. A change to more audience focused exhibitions and growing relationships with local, national and international partners has ensured a 500% increase in visitors over recent years. Since 2019, they have also been building a network to discuss and accelerate the practice of socially engaged photography.
Alongside their main gallery exhibitions, the Gallery also run Socially Engaged Photography Projects and Residencies in the Liverpool City Region, across the North West, nationally and internationally.
Here’s a selection of their recent work and exhibitions.
Current exhibitions and upcoming events
Self-Defined: New Stories from Archives (Open Eye Gallery, until 7 June, open Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–5pm)
Self-Defined brings together the histories from the East (or the Centre, depending on the perspective) of Europe through the contemporary work of artists from different geographies working with local contexts and their own family stories. It explores non-institutional, independent, private archiving and the non-existence or inaccessibility of material memory.
The projects featured in the exhibition range from an exploration of post-WW2 family displacement in Poland and Ukraine; to the history of the Crimean Tatars in the 20th century; to a decades-long photographic exploration of life in the Latvian countryside; from playful collages deconstructing Soviet tourist photographs to a speculative video dealing with the disappearance of the family archive.
Absence. In conversation with artists and curators (Open Eye Gallery, 6 June, 5pm–7pm, free, RSVP)
Curators and several of the exhibiting artists will discuss their work and the challenges of picturing what resits to be shown. Absence (exhibited at Stable Gallery) will be discussed in conversation with Self-Defined. New Stories from Archives, exhibited at Open Eye Gallery, exploring the use of archives in contemporary photography to highlight omissions, memories and historical narratives.
TreeStory Wigan (Haigh Woodland Park, Wigan, 23 May – 6 September)
A stunning outdoor exhibition featuring photos and stories by 20 local people, celebrating the remarkable trees that shape Wigan’s landscape and heritage.
TreeStory Wigan is a community project that invites residents of all ages and abilities to discover and celebrate the incredible trees of the borough, from the wetlands of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh National Nature Reserve to cherished trees in local parks, streets and green spaces.
OFFSHOOT: Artists in Residence (RHS Garden Bridgewater, until 28 February 2027)
Explore RHS Garden Bridgewater from new perspectives with exhibits from the inaugural artists in residence displayed in a variety of locations across the garden.
Yan Wang Preston, a multi-award-winning visual artist and photographer passionate about the natural world and our place within it, shares two pieces of work inspired by the garden and the work of the RHS. Yan’s work is shared alongside images by Fiona Robinson and Anoosh Ariamehr, Socially Engaged Photographers who have been resident in the Community Wellbeing and Community Grow gardens. Their artwork deepens our understanding of the impact of these spaces, allowing us to better understand how individuals from all walks of life connect with gardens and gardening.
Previous Socially Engaged Photography Projects
Photography Projects at the Life Rooms
The Life Rooms is a Mersey Care NHS Trust initiative, set up in 2016, to provide a wide range of free, short courses aimed to enable people to become more active in their own health and support wellbeing. They focus on prevention and enabling the whole community to bring about change. As part of their collaborative approach, Open Eye Gallery works in partnership through their Photography Projects at the Life Rooms to deliver a series of photography courses across all three of their sites in Walton, Bootle and Southport.
Revitalising Historic High Streets
With Revitalising Historic High Streets, Open Eye Gallery was working with Historic England, local authorities and other partners on revitalising cultural projects in Chester and Prescot. This project aimed to unlock the potential of high streets across England, fuelling economic, social and cultural recovery and breathing new life into it for future generations. It resulted in A Place of Our Own exhibition (2023).
Socially Engaged Photography Residencies
The Gallery’s Socially Engaged Photography Residencies programme has been running since 2016. This programme focuses on commissioning photographers and other creative practitioners together with local communities, using photography to explore topics which are important to those communities.
These have ranged from collaborative projects working with people within health and social care settings, local grass root community initiatives, gardening communities, youth centres, charities and prison settings. The work is made with and for those communities, ensuring their voice is central to the work.
One of the recent examples is Photo Here, a series of 6 residencies across the Liverpool City Region. The ‘Photo Here’ project saw established groups, including refugees and asylum seekers, members of the LGBTQI+ community and D/deaf and BSL users, tell their stories and the stories of the areas they live in with the help of professional socially engaged photographers in residence. Workshops culminated in six exhibitions in 2025.
Socially Engaged Photography Network
Working with organisations, photographers, community groups, academics and curators from across the country, Open Eye Gallery have been building a Socially Engaged Photography Network to discuss and accelerate the practice of socially engaged photography.
In the spirit of social practice, the network is shaped collaboratively by its users and has been running as a distributed network since October 2019. They now have over 500 members and 25 organisational partners supporting its development and delivery.
Socially engaged photography means activities or projects where photographers and communities/ individuals come together to co-author or co-produce visual representations of the world around us. The process behind the work produced is often as important as the final photographic work, and projects are often reliant on collaboration and discussion. The work often reflects multiple voices about a particular social, political, economical or environmental issue, rather than that of a single artistic voice.
Find even more events from Open Eye Gallery and beyond via our What’s On listings.