Shropshire-based photographer Ming de Nasty has been leading a project with older LGBTQ+ residents of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, that explores their identity and celebrates their lives.

SEE ME by Ming de Nasty is now open at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery and at Theatre Severn.

Ming de Nasty’s photography offers a different perspective, with individuals expressing a confidence and sense of identity in their gaze and position. The portraits are acclaimed and award-winning and speak of diversity and challenging stereotypes.

During this project participants have spoken about their younger lives, family backgrounds and the changes in LGBT+ culture, law and behaviour that has affected their lives. They have shared their old photographs and memories during a series of workshops taking place throughout 2023. These are included in the exhibition at the museum and will feature in the new publication.

Fourteen new portraits by Ming de Nasty also feature across the two exhibitions. Ming has been a professional photographer for 35 years and has worked on projects locally and nationally, exhibiting widely throughout the UK. Her most recent projects include ‘Queer Country’ a photographic project looking at queer-identifying individuals in Wales and what it means to be living in a rural environment; ‘Tagmasc’, for Birmingham’s SHOUT! Festival 2020, where she worked with queer identifying men in Birmingham to make a series of photographic portraits and audio monologues; and in 2018 a Residency with IKON Gallery, Birmingham to undertake a commission on The Slow Boat.

The project is a partnership between SAND and GRAIN Projects, the Midlands based photography organisation, supported by Arts Council England.

For more information, click here.