Community photography exhibition goes on show

A new community photography exhibition was launched last weekend at a celebratory event held at the Glorious Art House on Fore Street, Exeter.

The launch marked the start of the ‘Our Lives, Our Community, Our Voice’ project’s first photography exhibition.

The project, which has now run three courses in Exeter, provides participants with access to photographic equipment in facilitated workshops. It is managed by the Olive Tree Association/Devon Grapevine in partnership with Exeter-based social enterprise Meridian RAW and is funded by The People Health Trust.

Participants are encouraged over a number of weeks to produce a photo-story or theme that can reflect an aspect of their life, their community, an issue that affects them or a subject they are passionate about. The results have been fantastic and many of the images taken are now on display in the exhibition, which runs until 30th January.

The launch event was a huge success with over 40 people in attendance, including the project’s participants and community partners.  Music was provided by the very talented Eduardo Merino Polo (Newtown's Spanish guitar legend).

Clive Chilvers, Project Facilitator and Director of Meridian RAW, said "This was a great way to celebrate the first year of the project and it was wonderful to see participants from the three courses come together to discuss their images and exchange their stories. The participants make this project come alive with their images and photo-stories, as a facilitator it has been a real privilege to work with such diverse and creative individuals."

The project has a further three courses planned for 2015, plus two ‘train-the-trainer’ sessions and an end of project exhibition.  The exhibition is free of charge to view and will be hosted by The Glorious Art House until Friday 30th January.