Photo Here: all exhibitions

Six diverse groups from across the Liverpool City Region have provided a unique snapshot of their lives and communities as part of this year’s LCR Cultural Events Programme. 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. Here’s a short overview.

Sefton: Not All Who Wander Are Lost @ Crosby Library

Members of Crosby Camera Club have set out to discover the feel of Sefton – the streets, fields, green spaces, coast and places where day to day life takes place. They enthusiastically roamed across the borough embracing the principles of psychogeography – how location affects emotions and behaviour – responding through photography to locations across the length and breadth of the borough that are familiar and less familiar. The group are confident photographers who collaborated with artist in residence Stephanie Wynne, to expand their ideas about photography and to challenge themselves to create pictures that reflect their new ways of seeing.

Knowsley: Communities of Welcome @ The Kirkby Centre

Since January 2025, artist-in-residence Anoosh Ariamehr has been working weekly with a group of Knowsley residents at Huyton Library. Through weekly workshops, Anoosh has supported the group to develop their skills as photographers and artists via workshops, gallery visits and discussion.

The group – Communities of Welcome – became a space for people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds to celebrate their own differences and commonalities. Over several months, the group have used photography to explore their local area, encourage each other and to highlight their own lived experiences of locality and displacement.

Each person brings their own unique history and experiences to a place. This exhibition tells personal stories of connection, identity and place. When these stories are shared, they help us build stronger, more cohesive communities.

St Helens: Waiting Rooms @ World Of Glass & Street and a Half

Socially engaged photographer Abdullrhman Hassona and members of Cafe Laziz (an organisation breaking down the barriers between local people and asylum seekers and refugees through education and food) have collaborated to show the diverse culture of St Helens through portraits of people with different immigration and residence statuses. Each image is an introduction to a resident of St Helens and the stories that make a town feel rich with history and experience. The photographs represent people from 13 countries and feature messages in 8 different languages.

Emma from Café Laziz said: We are truly honoured to have Hassona in our Café Laziz family. His work highlights everything we are trying to do as an organisation. He is welcoming people from all over the world to St Helens and giving the local community an insight into the lives of asylum seekers, educating who they are and why they are here. The way to true community cohesion is through understanding, and this is exactly what this exhibition does.

Wirral: I’ll Tell You Later @ Williamson Art Gallery and Museum

I’ll Tell You Later explores the relationship between the Deaf experience and the hearing world. It sheds light on the barriers D/deaf individuals face, while showing the BSL Happy Snappers as a powerful example of how inclusive, supportive communities can break down these obstacles. Through their work, the group highlights the importance of creating a more inclusive society that benefits everyone.

Recently, I went to an exhibition of photography by a D/deaf camera club. The information panel at the door explained what it meant to be Deaf, deaf, or hard of hearing. After reading it, I was surprised to learn that I am deaf. While I’ve had hearing aids for nearly 18 months, at no point did anyone, not Specsavers or the NHS, tell me that I was deaf. Could I have done anything useful with that information? Do I feel like I’ve lost 18 months of being deaf? No, and maybe it is best for me to one day let go of labels, but for now, it is interesting to learn that I am part of another interesting community I never expected to be.

“I am deaf”: read Pete Carr’s reflection on the exhibition

The world and all the spaces that we use and spend time in are set up for hearing people. So for every interaction, whether that’s a GP appointment, a train journey or a visit to your local art gallery or museum.. the barriers and lack of access is a constant, exhausting battle and a recurring message ‘You do not belong here’.

This exhibition was about breaking down that barrier and to reclaim a narrative. To transfer the power and the ownership by connecting the two worlds, sharing the group’s personal stories and to create a Deaf space.

“Reclaim a narrative”: read Emma Case’s reflection on the exhibition

Halton: Emergence @ Victoria Park Butterfly House And Garden

Emergence is the outcome of a socially engaged project between volunteers at Victoria Park Butterfly House and visual artist Anna Wijnhoven. 

Through a series of photographs and collaborative work, Emergence celebrates the often unseen efforts of those who sustain this unique urban sanctuary. The project highlights the value of volunteering, the power of community, and the role small green spaces play in supporting urban sustainability.

Entirely volunteer-run, the butterfly house and gardens are a community-led space where people come together to care for both nature and one another. 

Liverpool: Residents @ Open Eye Gallery

Residents is a unique socially engaged project by photographer Ming De Nasty and the vibrant LGBTQIA+ community of Liverpool’s city centre.

During the last four months, Ming has been taking portraits of the members of Liverpool’s LGBTQIA+ community and discussing how the centre of the city feels to them. These portraits will be exhibited around Liverpool, on MerseyRail stations and on photography stands in Open Eye Gallery’s atrium.

LGBTQIA+ people have long gathered in the city centre for safety, community, and self-expression. Residents aims to honour that culture by making their presence visible via public artworks. Residents is a place for queer people of different generations and identities to celebrate each other.

Photo Here project was produced by Open Eye Gallery in partnership with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.