Dates:
1 Oct 2024 - Ongoing
Location:
London, Walsall, Online
Between 2024 and 2027 ICF is delivering a series of exhibitions, events, a fellowship and a new publication addressing the legacy of the photography journal Ten.8 (1978 - 1992). This includes: an archival exhibition at The Photographers Gallery in 2025 and a major exhibition featuring over 30 artists at The New Art Gallery Walsall in 2026 curated by Pelumi Odubanjo, ICF's Ten.8 Research & Curatorial Fellow.
About Ten.8
Launched in 1978, Ten.8 provided a forum for West Midlands-based photographers to come together, share images and exchange ideas. It quickly became a national and then internationally-focused publication and was described by key Cultural Studies scholar Stuart Hall as “the journal which has most systematically explored the relationship between how we represent the world photographically, the knowledge which these images produce and their implications for power and politics”.
ICF’s Ten.8 project has been developed in dialogue with Ten.8 editors Derek Bishton and Darryl Georgiou.
Between 2024 and 2027 ICF is delivering a series of exhibitions, events, a fellowship and a new publication addressing the legacy of the photography journal Ten.8 (1978 - 1992). This includes: an archival exhibition at The Photographers Gallery in 2025 and a major exhibition featuring over 30 artists at The New Art Gallery Walsall in 2026 curated by Pelumi Odubanjo, ICF's Ten.8 Research & Curatorial Fellow.
About Ten.8
Launched in 1978, Ten.8 provided a forum for West Midlands-based photographers to come together, share images and exchange ideas. It quickly became a national and then internationally-focused publication and was described by key Cultural Studies scholar Stuart Hall as “the journal which has most systematically explored the relationship between how we represent the world photographically, the knowledge which these images produce and their implications for power and politics”.
ICF’s Ten.8 project has been developed in dialogue with Ten.8 editors Derek Bishton and Darryl Georgiou.
Dates:
1 Oct 2024 - Ongoing
Location:
London, Walsall, Online
Ten.8 afterimage
1 May – 13 September 2026
The New Art Gallery Walsall, Floor 3 Gallery
Exhibition preview: 30 April 2026, 6-8pm, all welcome
Curated by Pelumi Odubanjo
A partnership between The New Art Gallery Walsall and International Curators Forum
Ten.8 afterimage explores the legacy and enduring impact of Ten.8 (1979–1992), a photography journal that emerged from the Midlands’ radical cultural and political landscape. Ten.8 played a key role in shaping critical debates about representation and the politics of photography.
Ten.8 offered new ways of thinking about photography’s social, cultural and political responsibilities. Founded in Handsworth in 1979 amid major social and political change in Britain, the journal was shaped by several key moments across the later 20th century, from the Handsworth and Brixton uprisings, Thatcherite neoliberal reforms, and the rise of Black British cultural politics. Ten.8 also engaged with global conversations around feminist movements, gay and lesbian rights and struggles against apartheid, colonialism, and state violence. Ten.8 afterimage engages with the continued relevance of the contexts and concerns that the journal addressed. The exhibition brings photographic works produced in the 1980s and 1990s into dialogue with more recent artworks, bringing into focus key considerations raised by Ten.8 across the subjects of visibility, power, and representation.
The exhibition will present a newly commissioned work by British Ghanaian visual artist Heather Agyepong alongside works by Ajamu X, Dawoud Bey, Zarina Bhimji, Derek Bishton, Brian Homer & John Reardon, Vanley Burke, Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Gon Buurman, Renee Cox, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Latoya Ruby Frazier, Joy Gregory, Sunil Gupta, George Hallett, Claudette Holmes, Roshini Kempadoo, Dave Lewis, Cynthia MaiWa Sitei, Masterji, Ming de Nasty, Ingrid Pollard, Franklyn Rodgers, Donald Rodney, Jamel Shabazz, Lorna Simpson, Jo Spence (in collaboration with Rosy Martin), James Van Der Zee, Maxine Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis.
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Public Programme
Ten.8 afterimage Symposium – Saturday 5 September 2026, 11am – 3:45 pm, The New Art Gallery Walsall
Speakers: Ajamu X, David A. Bailey, Joy Gregory, Ayesha Jones, Roshini Kempadoo, Pelumi Odubanjo and Ian Sergeant
The Ten.8 afterimage symposium brings together artists, curators, writers and researchers to reflect on the enduring legacy of the photography journal Ten.8 (1978 -1992) and address relevant questions around photography, representation, identity and cultural production. Across the day, we will consider how photographic and wider visual practices have shaped ways of seeing, remembering and representing communities across generations between the 1980s and today.
Ten.8 in Focus: The legacy of Black Image and Body Politics
9 October 2024 – 23 February 2025
The Photographers’ Gallery
This exhibition celebrates the renowned photography journal Ten.8 and its wider influence. It brings into focus two editions of Ten.8, Black Image (1984) and Body Politics (1987), by activating this rich history through text, design and archival material. Using these two issues as a departure point, this exhibition aims to open up a wider conversation about the legacy of Ten.8 and its exploration of the photographic medium.
Quotes are included from both issues by cultural and artistic luminaries such as Barbara Kruger, C L R James and Stuart Hall, and photographs by David A Bailey, Derek Bishton and Horace Ové. These are accompanied by material from The Photographers’ Gallery’s Archive related to these issues and to corresponding exhibitions presented at the Gallery: Staying on: Immigrant Communities in London (1984) and The Body Politic: Re-Presentations of Sexuality (1987).
Ten.8 In Focus: The legacy of Black Image and Body Politics offers a snapshot of the dynamic and multifaceted ways in which Ten.8 explored ideas around power, representation, race and photography. This examination of the journals demonstrates how pivotal and ahead of its time Ten.8 was during the 1980s and considers the ongoing relevance of these texts and images.
The exhibition is curated by Ten.8 editors Derek Bishton and Darryl Georgiou. It is a collaboration between The Photographers’ Gallery and International Curators Forum (ICF). It marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Black Image issue. Exhibition design is by Darryl Daley.
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Public Programme
Shifting the Centre Reading Group: Ten.8 in Focus – Tuesday 5 November 2024, 6:30 – 7:45 pm, The Photographers’ Gallery (free to book)
In this reading group, we will collectively discuss two Stuart Hall texts: the 2006 essay Modernity and Its Others: Three ‘Moments’ in the Post-War History of the Black Diaspora Arts and the 1984 article Reconstruction Work: Stuart Hall on Images of Post War Black Settlement.
Reflecting on the Legacy of Ten.8 – Tuesday 26 November 2024, 6:30 – 7:45 pm, The Photographers’ Gallery (this event is ticketed)
This panel discussion featuring Gilane Tawadros, Derek Bishton and Darryl Georgiou, and moderated by ICF’s Artistic Director David A. Bailey, will delve into the legacy and impact of the renowned photography journal Ten.8.
Ten.8 in Focus Exhibition Tour – Thursday 9 January 2025, 6:30 – 7:15 pm, The Photographers’ Gallery (free to attend with exhibition admission)
A short introduction to the exhibition with ICF’s Joanna Risvik.
Screening: Deconstructing the Black Image – Saturday 1 February 2025, 3 – 5:30pm, The Photographers’ Gallery (this event is ticketed)
Hear Martina Attille and Rhea Storr in conversation following a screening of their respective works Dreaming Rivers (1988) and The Image that Spits, the Eye that Accumulates (2017), chaired by curator and ICF Ten.8 Curatorial Fellow Pelumi Odubanjo.
Ten.8 Research & Curatorial Fellowship
ICF is excited to announce that Pelumi Odubanjo has been selected for ICF’s Ten.8 Research & Curatorial Fellowship. Beginning in October 2024, Pelumi will undertake this 18 month fellowship, during which she will be supported by the ICF team to engage with the archive of Ten.8 magazine to inform the development of a series of project outputs between 2024 and 2026. This includes curating an event at The Photographers’ Gallery in February 2024 and curating a major exhibition on the legacy of Ten.8 at The New Art Gallery Walsall opening in Spring 2026.
Pelumi Odubanjo is a curator, writer, and researcher based between London and Glasgow. Pelumi works with photographic archives, artists and cultural artefacts to create and explore dialogues across global Black diasporas and geographies.
This Fellowship is made possible with support from The Foyle Foundation, Hollick Family Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and Art Fund.
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