About PRISM Photography Open 2025

This group exhibition brings together a selection of thought-provoking new photographs by image-makers based across the West Midlands region.

Selected from an open call organised with PRISM Photography network, the featured artists explore themes of belonging and interconnectedness through portraits, landscapes, political and personal stories.

© Maria Reaney

Kindly supported by Arts Council England and players of People's Postcode Lottery.

The selectors

Rachel Bradley is a curator, public art commissioner and writer based in the West Midlands. Her focus is place-based practice, and she recently curated MAC exhibitions, The Butterfly Effect and Worlds Away: Art, Nature and Wellbeing.

Francesco Falciani is an executive Director of Prism photography network and documentary photographer based in Birmingham.

Rachel Segal Hamilton is a writer and editor with a specialism in photography. She has been Contributing Editor for the Royal Photographic Society since 2018, is a regular writer for British Journal of Photography and author of two books on photography, Love Story and Unseen London, published by Hoxton Mini Press.

Marley Starskey Butler is a multidisciplinary artist and social worker. They work within visual, audio, and written mediums through themes of opposites, parallels, memory, love, loss, reflection, process, and play.

Image shows to men at a PRISM photography network social event. The man on the left white with short grey hair and glasses. He is wearing a grey, white and navy striped jumper and glasses, and is taking a photo with a DSLR camera. The man on the right is also white with short dark hair, and is gesturing with his hands while talking. He is wearing a black turtle neck jumper. Both are sitting at a round table covered in a white table cloth, and behind them are some darkened windows with pale white birds printed on them.
Prism community event Credit: Brian Homer 2023

Roundtable discussion | Sat 25 April, 2.00pm | Hexagon Theatre, MAC

Roundtable panel discussion about the theme of belonging in contemporary photography. Speakers include Francesco Falciani (Prism Director) and exhibiting image-makers, chaired by Rachel Segal Hamilton (journalist and selector).

PRISM Photography Open 2025 is a collaborative project with Prism photography network, Birmingham. For network information and further events associated with the exhibition, visit www.prismphotographynetwork.org.

Image is a black and white group photograph of people attending a PRISM photography network community event. There are around 30 people in the picture, with one row standing behind and another row crouching down in front.
Prism community event Credit: Brian Homer 2023