Our Freedom: Then and Now exhibition is now open at Southbank Centre before touring the UK. I was commissioned by Open Eye and Future Arts Centre to make collaborative, photographic portraits with communities on Mull, Harris, Lewis, Inverness and Cromarty in Winter 2026 which will now open in a national exhibition. My partner organisations included An Tobar (Mull), Leabharlainn nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Libraries) and Eden Court (Inverness).
I am grateful to Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool) and Future Arts Centre for this commission, particularly to Liz Wiewora, Alex Sheen of Open Eye, Laura Yates of Bluecoat and POST Photography Collective for support during this commission.
Photo: Coll, age 15, a member of Mull Youth Theatre. Coll arranged and performed music for ‘Memories of an Island at War’, a film by Alasdair Satchel, which tells the story of the people of the isles of Mull, Iona, Ulva and Gometra during the Second World War. Behind Coll is the iconic Tobermory Main Street.
“Our Freedom: Then and Now is a national exhibition launching at the Southbank Centre, London, on Wednesday 25 March 2026. Twenty-two photographers from the Socially Engaged Photography Network have been capturing moments from some of the powerful and diverse stories that emerged from the Our Freedom programme across the UK during 2025. We will be sharing these photographs at the London premiere, prior to a nationwide tour.
Developed by Future Arts Centres and Open Eye Gallery, the exhibition brings together images drawn from 60 locally-led projects. Communities of all ages and backgrounds considered what freedom meant in their place in 1945, and what it means now.
To capture these stories, 22 photographers were commissioned through Open Eye Gallery, as part of their national role in the Socially Engaged Photography Network, to closely follow each project. The resulting exhibition offers a powerful visual record of the people involved – from schoolchildren and veterans to artists and participants aged 0–100 – reflecting the diversity and creativity at the heart of the programme.
Following its London premiere, Our Freedom: Then and Now will tour nationally to arts centres and libraries that took part in the programme, stretching from Libraries Unlimited in the South West to Eden Court in the Highlands. The full exhibition will also be available to view online from 18 March.
The Socially Engaged Photography Network, which seeks to raise the profile and diversity of community and collaboratively driven photography, is coordinated by our programme partner Open Eye Gallery. Working from the heart of Liverpool and reaching far beyond, Open Eye Gallery is one of the UK’s leading photography spaces, and the only gallery dedicated to photography and related media in the North West of England. They produce exhibitions, long-term collaborative projects, publications, festivals, and university courses – locally and worldwide.”
Photo: Newly appointed Artist in Residence for Leabharlainn nan Eilean Siar/Western Isles Libraries ‘Our Freedom’ project. Moira contemplates incorporating vintage hankies to create a bunting installation and starts hanging them in her Stornoway garden as bagpipes begin playing in the distance for Remembrance Sunday. Leabharlainn nan Eilean Siar/Western Isles Libraries facilitated a community project that honours the vital role Hebridean women played during World War II, highlighting the bravery and resilience of island women, and how their contributions helped shape the freedoms we enjoy today.