Brighton Pride’s 35th anniversary told through the faces of its community

A free portrait photography exhibition celebrating 35 years of Pride in Brighton & Hove is opening at Jubilee Library later this month.

“Proud Brighton: We Are Community” will run in the windows of Jubilee Library Brighton from 27 July to 15 August 2026.

Commissioned by Brighton Pride CIC, the exhibition features portraits of people from Brighton & Hove Pride, Trans Pride Brighton and Brighton Bear Weekend. Each portrait is accompanied by a single sentence about what Pride means to the person pictured.

The project forms part of United in Pride, a joint initiative bringing together Brighton & Hove Pride, Trans Pride Brighton and Brighton Bear Weekend.

The series was conceived and photographed by Chris Jepson, award-winning community photographer and founder of Proud Studios CIC. It features long-timers and first-timers, performers and volunteers, organisers and attendees.

The portraits aim to capture the range of Pride in Brighton & Hove, with particular attention to voices and faces often absent from Pride photography, including older community members, disabled LGBTQIA+ people, people of colour, and trans and non-binary people.

Chris Jepson said: “This project continues my long-term commitment to photographing LGBTQIA+ lives. For over thirty years, my work has centred on visibility, authorship and who gets to be seen.

“One of the things I care most about is removing the gatekeeping of who appears in photography, allowing for a more democratic, community-led curation.

“Proud Brighton: We Are Community is a portrait exhibition marking the 35th anniversary of Brighton & Hove Pride. These portraits are a reminder that our community has never been a single story – and that Pride belongs to everyone who shows up.”

Paul Kemp, Managing Director of Brighton Pride CIC, said: “Thirty-five years is a remarkable milestone, and we wanted to mark it in a way that felt genuinely true to our community. Proud Brighton does exactly that.

“At a time when LGBTQIA+ rights are under pressure across the world, visibility matters more than ever, and the portraits that Chris has created are a powerful act of representation.

“This is not a celebration of an idea of Pride, it is a celebration of real people, real lives and a community that continues to show up for each other.

“We are incredibly proud to have commissioned this work and to live in this vibrant, inclusive and diverse city.”

A selection of the images will also appear on lamp post banners across the city celebrating Pride.

More information is available at Proud-Studios.co.uk/proud-brighton.