As well as presenting exhibitions, Open Eye Gallery commissions photographers to work collaboratively with communities of place or interest, bringing groups together to learn from, share with and nurture each other.
Launched in 1977, Open Eye Gallery has a long-standing practice of collaboration with communities in Liverpool.
Open Eye is taking a lead in developing a socially-engaged photography network nationally. In Liverpool, Open Eye puts these ideas into practice with projects such as Dementia Eye: A View to Remember delivered in partnership with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and Liverpool SURF Group.
Bringing different voices, photographers, and communities together, the collaborative process is just as important as the final product
-Open Eye Gallery
Clickmoor
Formed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the intergenerational photography group Clickmoor is based in Clubmoor, North Liverpool. The group has been working with photographers, Emma Case and Kat Monaghan, to share stories, experiences, and start conversations through photographic practice.
Members use photography to explore issues of identity, community, health and wellbeing, while learning new skills, building their confidence and finding new ways to connect with the people and places around them.
Through photography, I think we’ve been able to talk to each other on a deeper level ... because you’re bringing things out in your pictures that you might not say in words, you know quite intimate things or this happened to me
-Honor Lake, Clickmoor Member
Covid-19 and beyond
In response to the pandemic, Open Eye developed an online programme, which included live-stream talks and virtual exhibitions.
Throughout lockdown, the Clickmoor group were able to continue engaging with photographers Emma and Kat via Zoom. The group began using photography as a way to document what they experienced, their feelings, and reflections during the COVID-19 pandemic, and produced a Zine called ‘Lockdown’, which brought together a selection of their photographs.
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