Shining Lights: Study Day

'Shining Lights' is the first critical anthology to bring together the ground-breaking work of Black women photographers active in the UK during the 1980s and 1990s, providing a richly illustrated overview of a significant and overlooked chapter of photographic history. Seen through the lens of Britain’s socio-political and cultural contexts, the publication draws on both lived experience and historical investigation to explore the communities, experiments, collaborations, and complexities that defined the decades.

In this study session, visitors will have the opportunity to review objects from the V&A Collection, which relate to the publication Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain (MACK & Autograph, 2024), including works by Mitra Tabrizian, Suki Dhanda, Joy Gregory, Maxine Walker, Jananne Al-Ani, Poulomi Desai, Henna Nadeem, Lola Flash, Zarina Bhimji, Bharti Parmar, Ingrid Pollard, Jennie Baptiste, and Sonia Boyce.

This event is hosted alongside the Shining Lights: Photography Symposium on Saturday 5th October.