In Conversation: Karen Harvey MBE

The Arb’s art writer Rosalind Ormiston meets photographer and philanthropist Karen Harvey, founder of the photography exhibitions initiative, Shutter Hub, to ask about their latest shows, how they’re democratizing photography, and the recent nod from Buckingham Palace for her work…

Karen, you created Shutter Hub ten years ago, could you describe what it is, and what made you initiate this collective?

Photography has always been important to me, since I was a small child. The ability to record and collect memories, and to tell stories through such simple means impressed me. I went on to study photography at university and upon graduating I was lucky to get a solo show in quite a prominent gallery. While it was amazing it also stopped me in my tracks, so I started taking part in group projects and exhibitions; I became a visiting lecturer to many universities, and undertaking residencies, working with communities in rural and deprived areas.

I realised I’d learnt a lot that I could share with other people, so I started organising themed group photography exhibitions, hiring spaces like the Menier gallery in Southwark St and I realised what I was doing nationally I could do internationally. So I founded Shutter Hub. We support photographers around the world, enabling them to access creative opportunities through things like portfolio reviews, exhibitions, publications, grants, events, and suchlike.

How do photographers find you?

I’m involved with a lot of photography industry projects, including being a portfolio reviewer for Vogue in Italy and Format Festival in the UK, as well as being invited to be a judge for many photography awards such as Gomma and Exposure Festival in Canada, so I’m lucky to see a lot of great photography and meet the photographers behind the work. Photographers also find out about Shutter Hub through word of mouth, we have a really lovely community and work with good people who want to share and support.

How many exhibitions are held each year and where are they held?

There’s actually no set number of exhibitions each year, and alongside the real world exhibitions and online projects, such as our recent collaborations with the Sainsbury centre in Norwich and Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, we’re also publishing books through Shutter Hub Editions, so that’s another way that we’re getting people’s work seen.

In the past 10 years we’ve curated over 70 Shutter Hub exhibitions, produced 12 publications, and supported over 10,000 photographers around the world.

Currently you have an outdoor exhibition ‘Return to the Sea’ running for a year in Worthing. What will visitors see?

Shutter Hub exhibitions have become known for their democratic approach – enabling photographers to share their work in an affordable and approachable way. We’re very different in the way that we produce exhibitions, in that we print the work for the photographers, saving them from the costs of printing and framing and couriering.

Crucially, everyone’s work gets treated equally, whether the first-time exhibitor or someone who’s had numerous solo exhibitions around the world – we present the work in the same manner, putting it together as equals in front of the audience, giving it all the same value and opening up the perspective for the viewer.

The Worthing show is exciting because it’s outside and available 24 hours a day seven days a week, rain or shine, day or night. It’s free, it’s accessible and it’s approachable. There’s no boxed-in gallery space that says you might not feel comfortable going inside – a lot of people don’t access arts because it’s not put in spaces that they are comfortable or familiar with, so for us being on the sea front and free for everybody means that we’re engaging with an audience that might not normally see the work and therefore opening up many more possibilities.

The theme, ‘Return to the Sea’, what’s that about?

Previous to the Return to the Sea exhibition we showed a year-long exhibition called To the Sea in the French coastal town of St Gilles Croix-de-Vie, so this is a sequel of sorts. I’m intrinsically interested in the sea and how we react to it – we live on an island and my house is 4 metres above sea level! As climate change imposes more circumstantial realities on us, the sea becomes ever more important in our everyday lives.

And your latest show OPEN 2025 has recently launched at the ARB, University of Cambridge, and shows photography in a rather unique way, tell us about that…

In 2018 I curated an exhibition at the old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane London, I wanted to show as much work as possible within the space and leave a little trace as I could. My solution was to print on newspaper, at first a lot of people really questioned this, but when they saw the show they were won over.

It’s now become a bit of a signature style for Shutter Hub, the walls covered in a mass of newspaper prints all the same size all the same materials, held to the wall with black electrical tape that creates a kind of graphic abstract repeat pattern. The newspaper is printed by Newspaper Club, using vegetable inks and I like the idea that the exhibition can be hundreds of images but when it ends there’s very little environmental impact of what’s left behind, the prints can become part of your compost!

Alongside the Shutter Hub OPEN 2025 exhibition is the Auto Photo Awards Top 100, to be screened in the atrium of the ARB building. Is it an awards ceremony?

A few years ago, I decided to merge my interests of photography and fast cars and create the Auto Photo Awards. In the first year I was joined by the fabulous Duke of Richmond as my co-judge, but we’ve grown a lot since then and have a whole panel of brilliant people involved now.

Every year we select the Top 100 images from all the entries and give special awards and highly commended within this. The Top 100 goes into our Auto Photo book and also onto screens in different venues so at the moment it’s on the screen at Cambridge University and Great Northern Classics, later in the year it will be at Silverstone and the British Motor Museum and various other places. It’s a great way of connecting the photographers with large and engaged audiences.

You also release books related to these exhibitions as Shutter Hub Editions. How do you choose what to publish?

We produce both themed and solo photo books. We choose themes that are of interest to us, mostly related to emotional or environmental factors, and we invite photographers to submit work for this. It might be that they’ve been in an exhibition with us or it might not be. We also invite photographers to put forward their ideas for their own solo books and we’re in the process of publishing our first one of those at the moment, of the work of a brilliant photographer called Gemma Taylor.

Are the photographers amateur or professional, or both, what’s the criteria?

We just call them photographers! I don’t think people should call themselves amateurs – if you care about what you are doing, embrace it!

We work with photographers from all different backgrounds, it’s not about how much experience they’ve got it’s more about the ability to create an image that’s worth sharing.

How does your selection process work?

Photographers from around the world submit their images online through shutterhub.org.uk and we do the rest. Exhibiting can be really expensive, and therefore prohibitive, so we’ve removed as many hurdles as possible. We print, install and promote the exhibitions, once someone’s work is selected, they don’t need to do anything else. No expensive framing or couriers. And, we put viewers in touch directly with the photographers, so if they want to buy something, they can, without losing a chunk of money to commission, and they can choose the format etcetera that they want.

Do you get to meet the photographers that are subscribers to Shutter Hub?

Many of them come to events and exhibitions, we have a really lovely community, and our events are always really friendly and supportive, so people come from all over the world to be together. It’s really lovely.

On your website, you mention Camera Amnesty Projects, what is that?

We support projects for people who are affected by a number of difficult situations including homelessness, poverty and social injustices across the UK, and around the world, with hands-on workshops, exhibitions, and print projects, enabling participants to express their ideas and creativity.

We set it up in 2017 originally to connect homeless photographers with the equipment they needed, but the project has since grown into something much bigger, providing a platform, funds and equipment reaching thousands of people across the globe.

Essentially, we take donations of photography equipment of all kinds and ages. We clean and fix cameras and kit and pass on to those who need them. Anything that isn’t of use to the people we support, we put into an auction and use the money raised to put back into the project.

Our aim is to help those who are unsupported achieve their potential through a positive and supportive experience. Through the projects we support, we help photographers build their confidence and develop transferable skills, empowering people to use their photography to tell their own stories, creating outcomes that benefit them and the wider community.

Shutter Hub has reached its tenth anniversary this year, what would you like it to achieve in the next ten years?

More sleep!

Before we conclude I want to add that in December 2024 you were at Buckingham Palace, London, to receive an MBE from King Charles III, for your charity Toiletries Amnesty, also celebrating its tenth year. Can you describe what it is and how people can be part of it?

This was for support of those living in hygiene poverty, for considerate consumption, and for the environment. Toiletries Amnesty started off as a side project, and has now grown to support over 1000 locations worldwide, providing access to toiletries and hygiene products to around 6 million people in 2024. Everything we do across all of our projects, Shutter Hub, Auto Photo, Toiletries Amnesty included, has to fulfill our ethos – to do good things, and make things better for people and planet.

Showcasing the work of over 150 photographers from around the world ‘Return to the Sea’ runs at The Seafront Gallery in Worthing until 12th October 2025.

Shutter Hub’s OPEN 2025 runs until 21^st March 2025 at the ARB, University of Cambridge, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road Cambridge CB3 9DT. For more information and opening times, please visit www.shutterhub.org.uk.

For more information about the Toiletries Amnesty, please visit www.toiletriesamnesty.org.

For more information about Karen and to see more of her work, please visit www.karen-harvey.co.uk.