Salford graduates to showcase talents alongside enthralling photography exhibition

Three new graduates from our MA Socially Engaged Photography course will be displaying their work in the upstairs Gallery 3 space as part of the exhibition, Next Up, an annual graduate showcase of the work from the course.

2024 graduates Anna Wijnhoven, Eleni Karypidou and Isabel Walker will showcase their enthralling pieces for the exhibition whilst 2023 course alumna Rachel Beeson has been assisting photographer Stephen King with his gripping exhibition, Firehawks.

Billed as the ‘first of its kind’ and the result of years of research, Firehawks seeks to uncover the real life experiences of children involved in firesetting behaviour and to raise awareness of firesetting through a visual demonstration of why individuals are drawn to this element ‘as a silent language of survival.’

Both exhibitions will launch as part of the gallery’s autumn shows on Thursday 25 September with the exhibitions to continue until Sunday 16 November.

For the Next Up exhibition, Anna will present her ongoing project Embracing the Inevitable. The project is 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’s show Breaking the Silence was 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 questioning our ideas of open and flexible conversation in often inflexible environments.

Finally, Isabel Walker’s photography focuses on social connections found through subcultures in the electronic music industry. She will share her 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. Each of the three projects explores wider conversations around the concepts of freedom, access and choice and how there isn't always a level playing field within society for these concepts.

All three graduates benefited from mentoring support from Stephen during their studies at Salford.

Open Eye Gallery has been jointly running the MA Socially Engaged Photography course with the University since 2018. The programme supports students to explore the power of photography when working with real communities to co-author meaningful culture.

Liz Wewiora is head of social practice at the gallery in addition to being Programme Leader for the MA Pathways programmes at the University of Salford.

On the Firehawks show, she said: “It is so exciting to see the project become a reality this year within our galleries, as we’ve been discussing this project with Stephen for more than five years. Like most good, socially engaged projects however, this shouldn’t seem a surprise, as working collaboratively with communities to shape and visualise stories which are important to them takes time. And Firehawks is a very particular story, which needs to be explored with care and sensitivity, something we hold real value in at Open Eye Gallery.”

To inform Firehawks, Stephen has been collaborating with Northumberland Fire and Rescue Services, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and London Fire Brigade Firesetting Intervention Scheme and Joanna Foster, author of Children and Teenagers Who Set Fires: Why they do it and how to help. He has been directly working with individuals with a history of fire setting behaviour and the professionals who work with them.

Tickets can be secured for the launch event via Eventbrite.