Open Eye exhibition focuses on Liverpool people and places

Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery is exhibiting evocative images captured over more than four decades of photographing people and places across Merseyside.

Photographer Stephen McCoy’s work is captured in Proximity which runs at the Mann Island gallery from November 7 to January 19.

McCoy has been photographing the region since 1979 and Proximity explores his connection with the place he also calls home.

His images feature a wide range of subjects, from the Merseyside coastline to communities, and demolition sites to portraits, and showcase different and experimental ways of capturing his subjects.

McCoy explains: “I’ve always felt that my best work shows a deep personal connection to the subject photographed, whether of people or place. A sense of place necessitates familiarity with an area; hence this exhibition is a distillation of a 45-year project, a continuing examination of my homeland, my Proximity.

“For me photographs must have a balance between concept, technique and creativity. I do consider myself a documentary photographer, in the broadest sense; I photograph my view of the world and create order.

“Many of the photographs in the exhibition are from older projects and these have taken on a different kind of importance as time has passed.”

Above: Skelmersdale by Stephen McCoy. Top: An image from his project River to River

There are nine projects represented in the exhibition:

Housing Estates, 1979-83: In the 1970s and 80s large housing estates were built in Ainsdale on the seaward side of the village. McCoy started to photograph what essentially was his home environment, going from dark pictures with high contrast to deliberately photographing under flat-light conditions.

Skelmersdale, 1983-84: Skelmersdale was designated a new town in 1961 to house overspill populations from the north Merseyside conurbation. With the economic downturn in the late 1970s large industrial employers left the town, causing an increase in poverty. McCoy was commissioned as a photographer in residence to make photographs of the residents and landscape of Skelmersdale.

River to River, 1985-90: River to River follows the coastline from the river Mersey in the south to the river Ribble in the north: from the docks at Seaforth through the tourist areas of Southport to the reclaimed marsh and farmland of Banks and Hesketh Bank.

Demolition Sites, 1981-86: Photographed in Liverpool and Preston, these spaces existed because of the demolition of industrial and domestic buildings. In some cases, they existed for a short time before redevelopment took place, with others the ground lay unused for many years.

Above: Demolition Sites

Archaeology of a Carpet, 2003: Layers in the transparent vacuum cleaner cylinder as an archaeological record of the domestic environment activities.

Personal Space, 1980-84: A series of photographs taken of families engaged in day-to-day activities in the safe space of homes and gardens – a humorous look at many quirky situations that occur as a natural part of family life.

Portraits, 1978 to present: Photographing a wide range of subjects and experimenting in ways of making pictures – to celebrate connection with people.

Every House My Mother Lived In, 2019 to present: One family’s journey through nine different houses and flats. From a terraced house in Liverpool to a semi-detached house in North Wales, from a flat in Greater Manchester to a self-build house in Ainsdale – each one has created memories, reminiscences, experiences.

The Rimrose Valley, 2016 to present: Rimrose Valley country park isn’t pristine and shows evidence of changing land use. Subject to flooding and occasional vandalism, it still has increasing importance for wildlife and peaceful recreation.

Proximity runs at the Open Eye Gallery from November 7 to January 19.