5 October 2024

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The symposium is produced in partnership with the V&A Parasol Foundation Women in Photography Program, Fast Forward: Women in Photography at University for the Creative Arts and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The videos were produced by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

The symposium celebrated this timely and important publication and foreground the contribution of Black women photographers to the history of the artistic medium.

This symposium, hosted by Shining Lights editor and artist Joy Gregory, provided an opportunity to further examine and debate the issues raised in the book, through the voices of the publication’s contributors and leading intergenerational thinkers.

PROGRAMME

Key Notes by the host Joy Gregory and Bernardine Evaristo (video presents only a 7-min extract).

Panel One “Art Community Spaces and Activism” with Lola Flash, Daila Al-Dujaili, Prabitha Parmar and chaired by Lola Olufemi.

Panel Two “Contextualising ‘Black Feminism’ ” with Lola Flash, Daila Al-Dujaili, Prabitha Parmar and chaired by Chair Sria Chatterjee.

Panel Three “Interrogating Decolonization: Institutions, Policy and Collection” with Christine Checinska, Roshi Naidoo, Bolanle Tajudeen and chaired by Bindi Vora.

Panel Four “Changing Landscapes?” with Rhea Dillon, Jemella Ukaebu, Symrath Kaur Patti, Nina Mangalanayagam and chaired by Joy Gregory.

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. It was co-published by MACK & Autograph ABP. With thanks to Joy Gregory Studio. The publication received the Aperture Photography Catalogue of the Year 2024 Award.