A new photography exhibition is launching at Open Eye Gallery this month

LOOK Climate Lab is a biennial programme exploring how photography can be a relevant and powerful medium for talking about climate change.

Open Eye Gallery is set to transform into a lab, bringing together researchers, activists and artists to test their ideas, and encouraging audiences to discuss systematic changes needed for dealing with the climate crisis.

LOOK Climate Lab 2026 will take place from 23 January 2026 to 29 March 2026, with this year’s programme focusing on gardens and how people connect with green spaces. 

Max Gorbatskyi, Open Eye Gallery’s curator, said: 

From memorials to places to hang out with friends, from horticultural perfection to an accidental hedge near your house or a tree that brings back memories, we examine the role plants play in our lives, and how our lives shape theirs.

LOOK Climate Lab 2026 projects include:

• My Nature Connection. Photographer Stephanie Wynne has been collaborating with volunteers for Whitby Park Community Garden exploring the positive impact of nature connections, developed in partnership with Chester Zoo as part of their Networks for Nature programme.
• Pansy Project. Paul Harfleet has been planting pansies at sites of homophobic and transphobic abuse since 2015. Through this quiet yet powerful act, the ongoing project gently confronts hate crime and brings visibility to LGBTQ+ experiences that often go unreported. 
• Emergence. A socially engaged project between volunteers at Victoria Park Butterfly House and visual artist Anna Wijnhoven. Through a series of photographs and collaborative work, it celebrates the often unseen efforts of those who sustain this unique urban sanctuary. Part of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Cultural Events Programme.
• OFFSHOOT is a collaboration between University of Salford Art Collection, RHS Garden Bridgewater and Open Eye Gallery. Socially engaged photographers Fiona Robinson, Anoosh Ariamehr and Liz Lock have been working at RHS Garden Bridgewater and with different groups from the Salford community, including youth groups, wellbeing and community groups. 
• Meanwhile, artist Yan Wang Preston embarked on a memory gathering process in response to the oldest tree at RHS Bridgewater. This magnificent sweet chestnut tree, estimated to be 300 years old, stands on the historical grounds of RHS Bridgewater. If trees are memory keepers, what might this tree recollect from the past three centuries? 
• TreeStory Wigan. The Story of Wigan Through its Trees was launched in 2025 by Open Eye Gallery and dot-art in partnership with Wigan Council, celebrating Wigan’s 50th anniversary. Much of Wigan’s green space has been reclaimed from post-industrial sites, transforming former coalfields into thriving natural habitats. Through photography, creative workshops, school visits and outdoor adventures, led by socially engaged photographers Lizzie King and Andy Yates, the project is bringing together local schools, community groups, and residents to share their personal TreeStories and connect with Wigan’s unique natural and industrial heritage. 
• Veterans’ Oaks is a nationwide, community-led initiative to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two – historically marked as the ‘oak anniversary’. Through the symbolic act of planting oak trees across the United Kingdom, the initiative commemorates, remembers and celebrates the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of the generation who lived through the war – both military personnel and civilians – and pledges to safeguard the nation’s environmental future in our struggle against climate change.
• Seeds of Change is a live project reimagining urban green spaces at the University of Salford. Three students and graduates, Nia Hoffman, Fariba Najafi Barzegar and Frances Veltkamp, have been working in collaboration with university staff, Open Eye Gallery and landscape architects Planit to design a series of multi-sensory and sustainable artworks and planting interventions for the space. The project transforms the space into a vibrant, welcoming, and ecologically rich ‘green doorway’ for the campus. 
• Roam, River, Roam is a practice-as-research project by artist and producer Liz Wewiora, which forms part of her wider current PhD in collaboration with the University of Salford and Open Eye Gallery. Liz has been working as a photographic artist in residence with different communities located at the points where various rivers meet. The residency explores individuals’ relationship to their local river and its surrounding public green spaces.

The events programme includes workshops, talks, open meetings and more – to be announced soon.

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