Open Eye Gallery and Culture Liverpool are thrilled to announce Lucy Hunter as our Photographer in Residence for County Road. 

This residency is connected to a wider programme of cultural interventions in the County Road Area, which is part of Culture Liverpool’s Next Generation Neighbourhood Projects. 

Previous successful projects have been the STEP: Princes Boulevard Regeneration and Bridge Project. The aim of all of these projects is to foster a sense of community pride, offer meaningful creative engagement and provide tacit skills. 

County District is located in North Liverpool County District Centre’s challenges are not unique – all towns and cities are facing the same problems, and the traditional British high street is in decline.

The reasons are universal: 

• The internet has changed how people shop 
• The convenience of out of town retailing 
• The extensive offer of large format supermarkets 
• Household retailers reaching the end of their commercial life cycle have resulted in retailers either going out of business or reducing store numbers. 

District centres like County cannot rely solely on shops any more – they have to offer more. Further challenges for County District Centre are the wider issues affecting the community such as health inequality and deprivation. The district centre is currently classed as an ‘unhealthy high street’ due to the amount of empty shops, accessibility challenges, poor environmental quality and poor air quality together with concerns regarding safety and crime. The linear nature of the centre stretching over almost a mile makes it difficult to maintain an identity or cohesion along the length. However, County is home to a multitude of locally owned businesses, community initiatives and creative groups which are working to improve the area. 

Sophia – Creative Producer Culture Liverpool is excited to see this new commission focus on the power of photography to bring people together and their stories to life, 

“Photography has become one of the most utilised mediums by which people share elements of their lives daily… if not hourly. It has permeated our lives and Socially Engaged Photography has a long history of being able to dig into the cracks of communities which have historically been hidden. It puts the people at the centre and works for them, rather than leaning into a voyeuristic depiction of societies. 

We are incredibly excited about this partnership with Open Eye Gallery. The gallery has unparalleled experience not only delivering world class photography exhibitions, but also taking those expertise out into communities in a meaningful and long lasting way. 

This combination of artistic integrity and socially engaged practice is exactly what artistic community engagement should look like. We hope that through the photographer’s long engagement with the community we will be able to, not tell the community’s story, as they can do that for themselves, but highlight and shine a light on the creative, warm, diverse stories and people of County Road.” 

For Open Eye Gallery, this marks the second time they have been able to collaborate with photographer Lucy Hunter on community led commission. Our Head of Social Practice, Liz Wewiora commented, 

“It’s been a pleasure to work with Lucy over the past few years. She first came to work with us as a participant on our Crossing Sectors talent development course; a programme which supports practitioners interested in learning about socially engaged approaches to practice, and it’s been a honour to see her skills and confidence in this area develop over this time. 

Lucy is also just about to complete a micro-commission working with Year 5 pupils from Prescot Primary School, who have been exploring their local high street through photo walks, exploring archive imagery and drawing (as part of the Picturing England’s High Street programme, part of a wider three year commission within the High Streets Heritage Action Zones Cultural Programme). This recent and new commission in Walton, will no doubt act as timely reminders of both the pride but also challenges which face our high streets today. We are excited to see what work will develop between Lucy and the local community in and around the County Road district area over the next twelve months” 

Lucy will start to meet with key community ambassadors and take part in series of public facing meet and greets and events over the coming months. We are also delighted to announce that we will be supporting a number of emerging practitioners to also work alongside Lucy on the commission throughout the year offering a greater opportunity of photographers and local residents to collaborate on work that reflects the County Road district area today. 

Artist Lucy Hunter explained her reason for being eager to work in the local area, 

“When I moved to Liverpool in 2019, I worked part-time as a Resettlement Officer at Walton Prison and during this time got to know the surrounding areas from my lunchtime walks and work in the neighbourhood. Much of my photographic work has community at its core so I’m delighted to be working back in familiar surroundings.

Photography is such a fantastic way of allowing us to connect, share our experiences and spark wider conversations about our views. The sense of community and connection is already evident in the County Road area and I’m looking forward to hearing more from people and learning about their lives and connections to the spaces.” 

We look forward to seeing the project develop over the next twelve months and will be sharing the work as it develops so watch this space!