Alicia Bruce - 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.
Sophie Ellen - Pop-up studio portraits alongside ‘Our Freedom: Then and Now’ event, a theatre inspired vision linked to Great Yarmouth’s entertainment history, photographing the people of Great Yarmouth, volunteers in the library and collaborators of the event.
Seema Khalique - Woolwich at War, Woolwich Library & British Army Association – SE London Veteran Breakfast Club.
Rosie Barnes - Joshua, commemorating Leon Greenman. JW3, London
Marysa Dowling - Stanley Arts, London
Leticia Valverdes - With poet Maggie Hampton and Chapter Arts, Cardiff.
Karina Lax - ‘Neptune’, The Art House, Wakefield
Emma Case - What does freedom mean to you? The Met, Greater Manchester
Carole Evans - Freedom Portraits, shot in From and To by Laura Eldret, Bridport Arts Centre, 2025.
Anneleen Lindsay - ‘Gala Queen Again – Sheila’ Sheila was once a Gala Queen at the local factory’s annual gala – we decided to recreate the look, in the area which had once been docklands but was flattened in the Clydebank Blitz.
Developed by Future Arts Centres and Open Eye Gallery, Our Freedom: Then and Now 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 (SEPN), to closely follow each project.
Out of the 22 photographers involved, ten are part of our very own POST collective. The project was also co-curated by POST member Liz Wewiora, as part of her role at Open Eye Gallery.
The POST members involved demonstrated and celebrated the diversity of practice and style which we bring to projects as a collective, and it was a pleasure to be involved. POST photographers included Emma Case, Carole Evans, Alicia Bruce, Anneleen Lindsay, Leticia Valverdes, Sophie Ellen, Seema Khalique, Marysa Dowling, Rosie Barnes, and Karina Lax.
The 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.
Across the UK, the project took many different forms, from a large-scale photographic mosaic created from public submissions in Lincolnshire, to a graphic novel exploring wartime history through a coming-of-age story in Barrow-in-Furness, as well as community street parties combining music, food and performance in Colchester, among many other locally-led activities.
Following its London premiere at the Southbank Centre, Our Freedom: Then and Now is now touring between 26 March and 30 October 2026 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 and more information about the project is also available to view online here: https://ourfreedom.org.uk/exhibition/
The photographers involved are also sharing the stories and process behind each commission, which you can follow via Open Eye Gallery here: https://openeye.org.uk/news/
