Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - Services - Community Relations Groups

Contact: Pauline Hadaway

The Exchange Place
23 Donegall Street

Tel: 028 9023 0965

Status of organisation:

Number of staff:

Aims and Objectives

Through its annual programme of exhibitions and the commissioning of new work, Belfast Exposed promotes excellence, access and participation in the arts and aims to raise the profile of photography as an art form. Belfast Exposed plans to develop a policy of project origination, placing its main emphasis on the commissioning of new work, production of publications and generation of discussion through seminars and talks around projects. In this way it will aid the development of a significant cultural object, create an infrastructure in which the photographic arts can flourish and bring the subjects and issues being treated through the photographic project to new and more diverse audiences.

Projects and Activities

Belfast Exposed is a photographic resource, archive and gallery. Based in Belfast City Centre's historic Cathedral Quarter it remains Northern Ireland's only dedicated photography gallery. The Exchange Place (23 Donegall Street), on completion will house a 7 - 20m gallery for the exhibition of contemporary photography, digital archive browsing facilities, a spacious B&W photographic darkroom and an 8-person Apple Mac digital suite. As a community photographic resource centre, Belfast Exposed also provides photographic services to the community at affordable rates, including: documentary and PR photography and access to training enabling groups and individuals to acquire practical knowledge and understanding of photography and digital imagery. Through such community workshops the organisation has compiled an archive of 500,000 images over the past two decades, providing a social document which records a turbulent historical period through the eyes and lenses of its principal actors, the communities themselves. Belfast Exposed has made an initial edit of 5000 negatives, these are being critically examined and contextualised and will be available as an online archive resource from Autumn 2003.