Next Up-2025

Launch: 25 September / 6–8pm / RSVP

Gallery 3 showcases our annual graduate exhibition of work from the MA in Socially Engaged Photography course, a joint programme Open Eye Gallery has run with the University of Salford since 2018. 

This year, we feature work by three early-career photographers and creative producers from our 2024 graduates, all of whom have also benefited from mentoring support with our Gallery 1 and 2 photographer Stephen King (Firehawks). 

Anna Wijnhoven presents her ongoing project Embracing the Inevitable, a collaborative photography project which navigates the real lived experiences of six assisted death advocates who support the actions of the charity Dignity in Dying to legalise assisted death for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live.

Eleni Karypidou showcases her project, Breaking the Silence; a participatory art project between Eleni, fellow student Isabel Walker and women from HMP Styal. Together, the group explored ideas of freedom of expression through music and dance and questioned our ideas of open and flexible conversation in often inflexible environments. Eleni also worked as a co-curator on the design of the Gallery 3 show. 

Isabel Walker’s photography focuses on social connections found through subcultures in the electronic music industry. For this exhibition, she shares a new project, Hold Tight, which highlights the strength of the community and the challenges some people face around access and inclusion to these specific music environments. 

Whilst each graduate is exploring very different subject matter, what connects these projects are wider conversations around concepts of freedom, access and choice. The projects highlight how this isn’t always a level playing field within society, but also how photography and collaboration can be a way for us to pause and rethink about who and what we can say about the world. 

Installation images by Rob Battersby.