We walk through London’s green spaces every day. Parks, gardens, and tree-lined squares that feel like a breath of fresh air in the middle of the city. We stop to admire the flowers, we sit on the grass, we watch the leaves turn with the seasons.
But rarely do we ask ourselves: who made this possible?
Behind every well-kept lawn, every blossoming rose, every path free of weeds, there is a person. Someone who woke up early, who worked in the rain, who shaped the soil with patience and care.
These are the quiet heroes of our shared spaces. Their hands, often unnoticed, give us beauty, shade, and peace. They turn patches of land into living canvases, where we find rest, joy, and a sense of belonging.
This project is about them. About making their work visible. About showing the faces and the stories behind the gardens and parks we sometimes take for granted.
When you next walk through a park and feel the calm it brings, remember: it didn’t happen by chance. It happened because someone cared enough to tend it.
And today, it’s time we see them, not just the spaces they shape, but the people who give those spaces life.
Seeing the Green Exhibition Opening: Thursday 2 October, 5pm to 8pm, Arbeit Gallery, 66 Church Street, London NW8 8EU. Exhibition dates: Thursday 2 – Saturday 4 October 2025, 12 to 5pm
Opening in Triangle Gallery on 2 October 2025, the ‘Seeing the Green’ exhibition showcases the work of participants of Seeing the Green photography project uncovering stories in and around Church Street green spaces. You are invited to visit the exhibition to the Opening between 17:00 and 8 pm on Thursday 2 October.RSVP HERE.
The Photojournalism Hub is delighted to present Seeing the Green photography exhibition. Over the past months, participants of the Seeing the Green photography project have explored stories and visuals around Westminster’s green spaces, with a special focus on the Church Street ward. Through photography workshops, walks, and field trips, participants connected with nature, communities, and local spaces to develop photographic stories now presented in this exhibition. As a viewer, you are invited on a journey into what is often unseen or forgotten to explore humanity through the simplicity of green spaces. The group’s observations reveal acts of generosity, community, and quiet contemplation, offering a new perspective on Church Street. This exhibition stands as both a personal and collective archive of the area and its people.
“The images created here remind us that even the smallest green spaces hold stories worth telling. They remind us of the importance of connection, community, and nature.” – Cinzia D’Ambrosi, Founder & Director, Photojournalism Hub.
The photographers of ‘Seeing the Green’ are: Anne Hogben, Carol Cooper, Laura Martin Laderas, Maria Speller, Mattei Muntiu, Ottavia Verziera, Roberta Mitchell, Victoria Sanders.
Seeing the Green is kindly supported by Community Priorities Programme, City of Westminster.
NOTES TO EDITOR About Photojournalism Hub Photojournalism Hub is a West London community interest company dedicated to empowering individuals and communities through documentary photography. We provide training, portfolio development, and opportunities for print publication and exhibitions. Our projects foster personal growth, social connections, and community cohesion while amplifying voices and creating pathways to employment and further education. www.photojournalismhub.org
About Arbeit Studios We take empty spaces – ranging from small 750sq ft buildings to vast 15,000sq ft warehouses – and transform them into studio spaces for artists, designers, makers, start-ups and small businesses – to inspire creativity, connect communities and power ideas. www.arbeit.org.uk
Photography setting fire to childhood trauma – Open Eye Gallery to host first photography exhibition about firesetting
Firehawks Open Eye Gallery – Liverpool Exhibition: 26 Sep 2025 – 16 Nov 2025 Media Preview: 25 September, between 12:30 – 4pm
The Photojournalism Hub is proud to feature‘Firehawks’, an important forthcoming exhibition at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. For the first time, the subject of firesetting is to be explored in a gallery space, as part of an exhibition by photographer Stephen King. Opening in Liverpool on 26 September until 16 November 2025, the ‘Firehawks’ exhibition at Open Eye Gallery, one of the UK’s leading photography galleries, follows a long-term project led by Stephen King to uncover real-life experiences of children involved in firesetting behaviour.
Rarely spoken about, the term ‘firesetting behaviour’ is not widely known or understood. In England, tens of thousands of deliberate fires are recorded each year. Often regarded as arson or acts of vandalism, many are started by children. ‘Firehawks’ seeks to raise awareness of fire setting through a visual demonstration of why individuals are drawn to this element as a silent language of survival, often due to a traumatic experience or environment that is challenging to speak about. It will also shine a light on the people and services who help to understand and overcome the complexities that can be indicated by firesetting behaviour. Featuring 20 images, displayed in a narrative of three phases; destruction, communication and renewal; ‘Firehawks’ is the culmination of years of work for Stephen, who himself has lived experience of firesetting as a child. After collaborating with London Fire Brigade Firesetting Intervention Scheme, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service as well as numerous conversations and workshops with individuals with lived experience, he has developed an exhibition of work borne out of his innate ability to listen and respond to people’s experiences and sensitively transpose their accounts into visual, metaphorical depictions.
“This exhibition is the result of several years of work, but ultimately a lifetime of trying to understand and heal from my own experiences of firesetting as a young person. I’ve worked with so many people associated with firesetting – young people who have set fires, adults who used to and those who work to understand, intervene and care for them. Their ability to talk, share and allow me to portray their experiences through my photography, has been very humbling.The visual language of photography can break barriers and destigmatise what is an incredibly sensitive subject, and the culmination of this project will hopefully bring a positive platform to those who are working through their trauma, who have overcome it, and show audiences that the work of frontline services is much more beyond ‘putting out fires’.” – Stephen King
Beginning as an Arts Council-funded research project in 2021, Stephen and the exhibition’s producer Angharad Williams, have worked closely with Open Eye Gallery’s social practice team and leading specialist in the field of child firesetting behaviour, Joanna Foster, to develop a larger scale project, looking at firesetting, its triggers, impacts and personal stories. Joanna, who is author of the book ‘Children and Teenagers Who Set Fires: Why they do it and how to help’ said:
“The significant maltreatment in the formative years of many children and teenagers who set fires is well evidenced. Such relational and attachment trauma can lead to complex survival responses and often crippling coping mechanisms, which can include acting out in the form of setting fires. These fires can help regulate intense and overwhelming emotions, draw attention to an otherwise invisible child, or give voice to words and feelings that are too difficult to speak.” – Joanna Foster
The photographic series shown in the exhibition does not seek to diagnose or define. Instead, it invites the viewer to sit within the tension of the fire, connecting with the issue of firesetting through images of anonymised people and situations, portrayed with a filmic and dreamlike quality. A black dog walks among scorched trees, carrying stories in its teeth; dolls burn on a mattress floating on reflective water; a fire service training dummy supports a young boy on the edge of a precipice; new life starts to grow in a community orchard – a site which holds firesetting memories for the photographer himself. Stephen continues:
“The images don’t depict fairy tales, though they borrow their familiar shapes. I wanted to be sure that fire was ever present in the exhibition, encapsulating the flickering, crackle, and smoulder of the element at the core of the stories. In circumstances of firesetting, flames become a language, a companion, a compulsion, a release. The work gathers fragments; stories from children, adults talking of their younger selves, voices from those who work in fire and rescue services, memories that smoulder long after the event. It is not a study, but a visual reckoning — born from experience, shaped by dialogue, held in a shared, collective space. I hope it makes those who have been through trauma feel less alone and less stigmatised.”
“It is so exciting to see the ‘Firehawks’ project become a reality this year within our galleries, as we’ve been discussing the project with Stephen for more than five years. Like most good, socially engaged projects, however, this shouldn’t seem a surprise, as working collaboratively with communities to shape and visualise stories which are important to them takes time. ” – Elizabeth Wewiora, head of social practice at Open Eye Gallery said. And ‘Firehawks’ is a very particular story, which needs to be explored with care and sensitivity; something we hold real value in at Open Eye Gallery.
“Stephen’s approach considers the anonymity of all involved whilst still opening up a visual conversation for our audiences as it explores why people can be drawn to fire during traumatic experiences in their lives, and moreover how wider society and our frontline services respond and deal with this. Stephen’s photographic work leans into the metaphorical and surreal which is also a welcome alternative approach to socially engaged photographic imagery, which can tend to sit more within a documentary style. We can’t wait to see the work come together in the gallery this September.” – Elizabeth Wewiora
The root of the exhibition’s title links to the phenomenon of the Firehawk, an Australian bird which has been observed creating bushfires by carrying burning sticks to new locations, deliberately spreading fire to flush prey from the undergrowth. The Firehawk bird has never been digitally captured, and most accounts are from first nation experts in Australia. This rare act of intentional ignition by a non-human species gestures toward something deeply instinctive, even ritualistic, as a form of survival, much like the humans in the exhibition who connect with fire as a copying mechanism through trauma.
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and in collaboration with London Fire Brigade Firesetting Intervention Scheme, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
FURTHER INFORMATION Lucy Hodson, PR & Communications lucy.hodson@outlook.com 07967 551 002
All photos copyright: Stephen King
Notes to Editors: About the photographer, Stephen King www.stephenkingphotography.co.uk Instagram: skingphoto Stephen King is a socially engaged photographer with over 20 years’ experience of working across cultural, educational and community sectors. His practice is varied but always involves collaborations with people and how they navigate society as individuals or part of a community. Moving from documentary and editorial work in 2008 to more personally instigated & collaborative work, he has since collaborated on projects with industrial workers, miners, prisoners, LGBTQ communities, veterans, retail workers, universities, people with dementia, homeless, young people, travellers, sporting clubs, medical institutions, artists, writers & academics. In 2009 ACE funded Stephen’s project ‘Lewis’s Fifth Floor: A Department Story’ which was exhibited in National Museums Liverpool (with a publication), Orange Dot Gallery London & Brighton Photo Fringe Biennial (winning Danny Wilson Memorial Prize). In 2013 he was awarded the International Development Fund – Artist in Residence at CREATE, Dublin. In 2016 ‘Dry Your Eyes Princess’, a collaboration with John Moores University, exhibited at National Museums Liverpool (Homotopia Festival) & Red Barn Gallery, Belfast (Outburst Festival). Key commissioners include Heart of Glass, Age Concern, Arts Admin, Cork Midsummer Festival, FACT & Arts Council England. His breadth of experience & diversity of collaborations, echoes a genuine passion to work with others to tell their own stories through the powerful & accessible medium of photography.
Open Eye Gallery Open Eye Gallery is an independent, not-for-profit photography gallery based in Liverpool. One of the UK’s leading photography spaces, it is the only gallery dedicated to photography and related media in the North West of England. A registered charity, Open Eye Gallery believes photography is for everyone and can be meaningful, informing our present and inspiring positive futures. Open Eye Gallery works with people to explore photography’s unique ability to connect, to tell stories, to inquire, to reflect on humanity’s past and present, and to celebrate its diversity and creativity.
Open Eye Gallery is open 10 am – 5 pm, Tuesday to Sunday, 19 Mann Island L3 1BP. Facebook / Instagram / X: @OpenEyeGallery
