Guest opinion:
Roxana and Pablo Allison outline how a respected new photographic collective emerged from Redeye workshops.
Centrepoint Collective is a photography group comprising of emerging photographers from the UK, Spain, Sweden and Mexico, which aims to galvanize the development of the individual members’ photographic practices and careers. Founded in 2009, the collective’s objective is to enable emerging photographers to share knowledge and ideas, discuss their practice and explore the points of connection and synergy between the work of each artist through exhibitions and collaborative projects.
The collective was initially established after one of its members engaged with Hang - the 2008-9 Redeye Exhibition Workshops with Impressions Gallery. A year later, another one of its members participated in Redeye's 2010-11 Lightbox workshops (with Open Eye), under the guidance of renowned British publisher, Dewi Lewis.
These workshops were a key element in understanding more about teamwork alongside working on common themes. These programmes culminated in exhibitions. The process of mounting a show involved working with professional curators to develop knowledge about the specifics of exhibition organisation including picture editing, installation, writing press releases, marketing and communication and publication design.
The Redeye workshops highlighted that working collectively was a productive way to enable artists to progress their careers as photographers, and a few months later Centrepoint Collective was founded.
Since September 2009, the collective has been working on exhibitions at various public spaces including Aston University (Birmingham), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London) and the Cervantes Institute (Manchester), as well as showcasing both emerging and established photographers' through their website.
They are currently working on the photographic project Place & Being: A Photographic Dialogue Between Two Cultures (www.placeandbeing.com) in partnership with Neuroblasto Magazine (Mexico). The exhibition will present the work of 15 photographers residing between the UK and Mexico, exploring themes including culture, identity and displacement. Tom Hunter, Dulce Pinzon, Adam Wiseman, Pablo Lopez Luz, Murray Ballard and Petra Stridfeldt are among some of the names that will feature in this important international exhibition.
Centrepoint Collective has actively applied to this project the knowledge gained during the Redeye workshops, and a number of the photographers now featured in the exhibition have also benefited from past Redeye activities, thus contributing in various ways to the making of Place & Being.
For further details about the collective please visit www.centrepointcollective.com.