You know when you’re just proud of something? That rubs off.
There are open exhibitions for all disciplines, but they’re typically mixed media and shown in spaces that don’t necessarily specialise. LCR Photo Awards is at Open Eye Gallery though. So the artists and photographers on show here are showing, mostly for the first time, in a gallery that specifically suits their needs.
There are eighteen of them, selected from over 2000 submitted works*. A handful are professional artists and/or full-time photographers, but one is an amateur photographer who has only recently engaged in one of Open Eye’s socially engaged programmes. Others include artists more used to working in other disciplines.
All of them are now showing at one of the UK’s best respected photography galleries.
The exhibition is split into the application categories, which gave artists space to respond flexibly to four themes; celebration, connecting, futures, shared space(s), movement and care.
What’s kind of just a bit lovely though is how almost everyone has responded so directly not just to the themes, but to the Liverpool City Region.
There’s a brilliant moment that must have come through selection where Ella J McConville’s images of the aftermath of Liverpool’s 5-1 victory over Tottenham last season, counter Pete Regan’s Everton fan documentary work in the most hyper local balancing of representation you’ve ever seen. It’s joyful.
But it’s the Shared Space strand, which blends neatly with the Movement strand, to offer a truly diverse presentation of Liverpool City Region over Liverpool City. Club nights set against agriculture, set against transport, set against domestic space, set against industrial parks. It’s Merseyside in all its glory.
Andrew Shaw’s ‘Office Enquiries’, a document of retained stuff, presents the shared purpose of love/work space. The items in each image are unnamed prompting deeper observation, but they all represent style lifetime of a space, rather than its occupants. Things retained from previous inhabitants; stuff kept behind for unknown future uses. All industrial, domestic, agricultural and personal at the same time.
Now set that against the deeply personal work by Amy Woods, whose diary work focuses on her relationship with her childhood best friends. I don’t know how in touch they are, or if this series is of a reunion, but it’s clear there’s deep nostalgia held in these friendships. The quality of the photographs steers you to that, but the setting does too: bedrooms, bus stops, loos. It’s the station shot that hits home though – we’ve all got that picture, tucking into not-even-slightly-melted cheesy chips because you’re not ready to say goodbye just yet.
But that sense of shared space goes beyond that segment of the show. Ella J McConville’s ‘Victory in L4’ series is shot right after one of the most momentous games in the club’s history. It’s wildly celebratory (part of the Celebration section of the awards) but its also significant for a football cynic like me, because so much of that game is remembered through the tragedy of the parade that follows. Documents of the moment of real, visceral, celebration like this reclaim that piece of club history by perfectly representing the shared space fandom provides.
It’s all about here and now and feels as curated as any other Open Eye Show, with a persistence of social engagement, or at least of celebrating it. Jude McLoughlin’s works present the deep connections between the L8 community and Squash Liverpool.
John McDonald, Stephen McCartney and Pete Regan all looks to present community, and you can see this very real difference in how generations observe and use the city between each artist.
Connor Maxwell’s work is observed care. General and human, just happening in the world around him. Will Whatley’s ‘The Elephant Pest Control Man’ is an incredibly personal presentation of a relationship with his father, and how that adapts into trust once the care system becomes involved in that relationship and, in this case, how that system becomes part of the family.
For some of these artists, it’s a direct opportunity to present wider work. Andrew Shaw and John McDonald are both launching zines and prints of the work.
Solenna Argow’s ‘Black Sheep’ is part of a significantly larger series exploring the ethical wool industry. The project seeks to celebrate, long-term, the value of women’s labour, and to promote the reintroduction of heritage crafts into the home.
There are so many projects to follow progress on out of this single exhibition, and all of them are perfect representations of a tiny slice of life in the Liverpool City Region.
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LCR Photo Awards is open at Open Eye Gallery until 11th January 2026
Find out more at www.openeye.org.uk and follow @openeyegallery on Instagram for links to some of the artists’ own profiles