Abstract

An authored text published on the Open Eye Gallery website, April 2026, written by Johannah Churchill as part of the Our Freedom: Then and Now project. The text reflects on Churchill's photographic practice across nine Northeast venues, exploring themes of freedom, community, and vulnerability through portraits made at arts centres, libraries, and community spaces across the region. Drawing on Timothy Snyder's writing on freedom, the piece examines how photography can make visible the uneven distribution of liberty and the collective conditions that sustain it. The text accompanies Churchill's contribution to a nationwide touring exhibition curated with Open Eye Gallery and the Socially Engaged Photography Network, launched at the Southbank Centre, London, in March 2026.