A special photographic project showcasing the portraits and words of members of the Liverpool City Region’s queer community is on show at Merseyrail stations across Christmas and the New Year.

Residents was co-commissioned as part of the 2025 edition by Homotopia and Open Eye Gallery, the UK’s longest-running LGBTQIA+ arts and culture festival which saw a busy programme of events and projects around the theme ‘Uprising’ taking place across the City during November.

Queer photographer Ming De Nasty spent 4 months capturing members of the LGBTQIA+ community on camera for the festival co-commission with the City’s Open Eye Gallery and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, in partnership with Merseyrail and Sahir House.

The project has already included an exhibition outside Open Eye Gallery on Mann Island.

Now Residents remains on show at a dozen stations across Merseyrail’s Northern and Wirral lines until February, with the photographs and accompanying text at Aughton Park, Birkenhead Central, Eastham Rake, Green Lane, Hamilton Square, James Street, Kirkdale, Maghull North, Moorfields, Rock Ferry, Spital and Town Green.

LGBTQIA+ people have long gathered in Liverpool City centre for safety, community and self-expression.

Residents honours that culture by making their presence visible via public artworks and is a place for queer people of different generations and identities to celebrate each other.

Along with being staged by Homotopia, it is also part of the Combined Authority’s wider Photo Here programme, delivered by Open Eye Gallery, a series of 6 residencies – 1 in each borough of the Liverpool City Region - in which a diverse range of established groups have been invited to tell their stories and those of the areas they live in with the help of socially engaged photographers in residence.

Over a 35-year career, portrait and documentary photographer Ming de Nasty has worked on many projects with local and national organisations including Birmingham’s IKON gallery and Factory International in Manchester and has been exhibited widely in the UK. Participation and collaboration are at the heart of her practice.

Sinead Nunes, Interim Executive Director at Homotopia, said:- “Our 2025 festival, Uprising, was an unapologetically defiant and rallying cry against increasing hostility towards LGBTQIA+ people. So it feels apt that this exhibition of queer faces – literally reclaiming space in train stations across the Liverpool City Region – continues that message of visibility,  resilience and empowerment into 2026”.

Open Eye Gallery’s Bronwyn Andrews, creative producer of Residents, added:- “To see queer people existing – publicly, proudly, openly and vibrantly - in the City centre sends a message that there are unique, authentic ways of being the person you are. At a time when LGBTQIA+ people find ourselves under constant attack both culturally and politically, the act of sharing Residents publicly in the city is about more than pictures of people on a wall – it’s about resilience and pride.”

For more details visit this website.