Working with organisations, photographers, community groups, academics and curators from across the country, we have been building a 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. We now have over 380 members and 25 organisational partners supporting its development and delivery.
We have regional meet up groups established or currently developing across the North West, North East, the Midlands, Yorkshire, Scotland, London and South East, and the South West. If you are interested in finding out more about the regional groups or setting one up in your area please contact liz@openeye.org.uk
We also keep in touch via a facebook group HERE and a regular newsletter. The is a fully open network and you can join below by signing up to the mailing list.
JOIN THE NETWORK HERE.
When referring to the term socially engaged photography, we mean 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.
More on socially engaged photography:
The wider term, socially engaged practice is itself, constantly being challenged and redefined. The network hopes to apply these current debates to the context of our own photographic specialism. It is important to note that each and every organisation and individuals will navigate the process of co-authored work in different ways; the network hopes to demonstrate this diversity of practice whilst providing a stable grounding for social practice. As millions of us share our daily lives via photography on social media, we are passionate about supporting work that brings the expertise of the photographer together with the lived experience and knowledge of communities. Ultimately, we hope to act as an open network for sharing resources, learning, dissemination of current projects and practitioners, and maintaining dialogue and debate about the work within this field.
Examples of socially engaged photography Projects:
You can read more about a host of socially engaged photography projects via our regular blog posts HERE
