New exhibition celebrating queer joy to open at Seafront Gallery, Brighton

A new FREE exhibition opens in February 2026 at the Seafront Gallery next to the Brighton i360, bringing a clear focus to LGBTQ+ History Month and the power of personal stories. 

Project Uncut presents new collaborative work by award-winning photographer Chris Jepson, and features portraits and first-person accounts from members of the LGBTQ+ community who share moments of queer joy from their own lives. With a broad sweep of experiences, voices and identities, each portrait connects you to a lived reality that often goes unheard. 

Building on Jepson’s earlier series The Identity Project and Beyond The Binary documenting LGBTQ+ lives across the UK and beyond, this new chapter turns the spotlight towards joy, pride and comfort in your own skin. 

You read stories of friendship, love, family and self-acceptance. You also see how people find space to breathe and grow. It asks you to think about what queer joy means in your own life. 

LGBTQ+ History Month gives you a chance to look back at the people who pushed for change. It also invites you to look at the present and listen to those shaping the future. Sharing real stories helps you understand how far we have come and how much work still sits ahead. 

Project Uncut brings these stories into a public space on the seafront. You can stop, read, reflect and meet the community behind the words. It shows how history is made every day through honest expression. 

Project Uncut is open Monday, 9 February - Sunday, 8 March at The Seafront Gallery, a visual arts resource owned and operated by Brighton & Hove City Council and is FREE to view. A zine publication of all the portraits and stories is also available.