Established in 1977, Open Eye Gallery is a photography gallery and archive that documents social history. Whilst researching for this booklet, many members of the queer community highlighted how Open Eye Gallery has been an important resource, a space to visit that opens visitors’ minds to other identities in the world. This has included representing a diversity of queer identities, enabling queer people to feel seen, understood, and to build connections with others alike to them far away from home.
One such exhibition that exemplified this was “Wake Up Together” in 2018. This exhibit included Robin Hammond’s Where Love is Illegal, which shared portraits of queer individuals and couples living in places where their identities are not tolerated - whether through discrimination laws, prejudice or censorship and invited onlookers to connect with them personally.