Watch the first event in the First Light Spotlight series, a conversation between First Light curator Mario Popham, writer-in-residence Laura Robertson and Open Eye Gallery director Sarah Fisher.

Open Rooms will be hosting a season of talks in partnership with Waterside as we approach the launch of the exhibition, First Light – New Northern Photo Graduates in the spring/summer 2021.

The exhibition, devised by Waterside’s Mario Popham, brings together works by 13 photographers who have graduated from the region’s educational institutions in 2020. Open Eye Gallery’s writer in residence, Laura Robertson will be producing a special First Light edition of Tilt (Open Eye Gallery’s in-house zine) featuring 13 commissioned pieces of new writing that responds to the selected photographic works.

This season of talks, chaired by Laura and Mario, will bring together the photographers, writers and educators who are central to this project. Together they will discuss the ideas and inspiration behind the images, the potential for collaboration across disciplines, the relationship between the image and the word and the role educators play in the early development of artistic practice.

Watch back our online conversation between Open Eye Gallery’s Sarah Fisher, project curator Mario Popham and writer-in-residence Laura Robertson to introduce audiences to the upcoming talks and the wider First Light project.

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Laura Robertson
Laura Robertson is a critic, writer and editor specialising in contemporary arts and culture. International magazines, including Art Monthly, a-n, ArtReview, Elephant, frieze and Hyperallergic, have published her interviews, features and reviews since 2014, and she’s talked about art on BBC Radio 4 Front Row as a guest critic since 2018. Robertson curates and exhibits, teaches art writing, and collaborates with other writers and editors, artists, galleries, colleges, universities and communities to explore arts writing as a creative, interdisciplinary practice.

Mario Popham

Mario Popham is a curator, photographer and educator based in Manchester, UK. In his role as Visual Arts Coordinator at Waterside, Trafford, he is currently working towards establishing a dedicated photography program for the Greater Manchester area. The venue’s inaugural photography exhibition, Sweet Debris took place at the venue’s gallery in 2019.

As a practitioner, his interests lie in man’s complex relationship to the natural environment, with particular focus on the legacy of our industrial heritage. His work has been shown at various venues in the UK and abroad including HOME MCR and Groundwork Gallery, King’s Lynn. In his capacity as lecturer and tutor in photography, he currently works across a number of educational institutions in the Northwest.

Sarah Fisher
Sarah has over 30 years experience in the arts. Currently Executive Director of Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, Co-Chair of Culture Forum North and on the advisory board of Hardman House, Liverpool. Previous history includes leading the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, and Head of Visual Arts, Arts Council NW, amongst other roles. Sarah began her career as a London-based practicing artist, lecturing at the Slade School of Art and Chelsea College of Art and Design. Sarah has a B.A. Fine Art (Winchester School of Art) and M.A. Fine Art (Royal College of Art).

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Open Rooms is Open Eye Gallery’s online programme. It involves free live-streamed talks and workshops, plus ongoing public discussions on our Discord community. It takes place in rooms all across the world — artists’ rooms, chat rooms and in your living room.

Please note, this event will be hosted on Zoom, please sign up via Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link here.

We also have a community of chat rooms and ongoing conversations on Discord, a free messaging app open to all. To join, follow this link and download Discord on desktop or mobile.

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Image credit © Schnel Franzine