Belfast Exposed marks 35 years with new exhibition

A NEW photographic exhibition has opened offering an insight into political, cultural and social change in Belfast and beyond since 1983.

Belfast Exposed Photography is showing an array of powerful and invaluable historical images by the many individual photographers and communities who have engaged with the project since it launched.

Founded by a group of local photographers as a challenge to media representation of the city's experience of conflict, its work continues to reflect a socially engaged ethos, while responding to contemporary currents in photography and politics further afield.

The original Belfast Exposed exhibition comprised of more than 600 photographs and slides, articulating the life of the city from predominantly working class perspectives. It opening at the People’s Theatre, Conway Mill, Falls Road.

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Seamus Heaney described Belfast Exposed as "a marvellous moment" and remarked on the "powerful, democratic feel running through these photographs" which documented a common experience of unemployment, poor housing and economic deprivation, at once intensified by the effects of conflict and sectarian division and alleviated by the gritty humour and reality of working class Belfast life.

The retrospective 35th anniversary exhibition is being held at the Artcetera Gallery in Belfast until October 24.